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England hope to revel in role of underdogs

2007-09-20T08:21:00.005-07:00

England hope to revel in role of underdogs
Kelly Smith is relishing the prospect of “a finger-licking tie” against her old friends and rivals on Saturday after the United States booked a quarter-final date with England at the women’s World Cup.

The England striker, who is level with Birgit Prinz, of Germany, and Marta, of Brazil, on four goals in the chase for the golden boot, will come up against Hope Solo, the US goalkeeper, with whom she played for the Philadelphia Charge when making a living in the Women’s United Soccer Association (Wusa), after the Americans defeated Nigeria 1-0 yesterday to finish top of group B.

Smith made her name in the US when, as a teenager with Arsenal, she was offered a sports scholarship before becoming the only English player to turn professional in the most renowned women’s league in the world. Although Wusa was disbanded in 2003 - after which Smith played semi-professionally for the New Jersey Wildcats before returning to Arsenal – the international game has become increasingly competitive. Attendances for this World Cup have averaged about 37,000 and this weekend’s quarter-finals should intensify the drama. England’s tie is to be televised live on BBC One at 1pm.

“America will be huge favourites and we’ll be the underdogs, but we’ll thrive on that,” Smith, who scored twice in Tuesday’s 6-1 dismantling of Argentina, said. “When I was in the States I played against a lot of the American players, so I’m very familiar with them. It’s going to be a real challenge and a finger-licking tie.

“I don’t think there’s much between the teams. We’ve got a lot of skilful players, we create a lot going forward and I rate our defence very highly. They’ve been outstanding for us at this tournament.

“They [the US] have got a strong back line, too, though, and they’ve got a lot of tournament experience. They are used to winning, which obviously helps them, and they’ve got great players, like Kristine Lilly and Abby Wambach, who scores goals for fun.”

Greg Ryan, the US coach, said: “We know that England are a very strong team. They’ve come a long way, so it’s not surprising that they are in the second round. I expected them to make it in their group and I think their performance against Germany showed how strong they are.”

The US have won the World Cup twice and reached the semi-finals four years ago on home soil before losing to Germany, the eventual champions, with whom England drew on Friday to take morale to new heights. The teams’ most recent meeting, in Guangzhou in January, ended in a 1-1 draw. “Our team took a lot of belief out of the China Cup when we got draws against the best two teams in the world [the US and Germany], and obviously taking a point off Germany in this tournament has deepened that inner confidence,” Smith said.

“We’ve had a lot of important tournament experience ourselves in the last couple of years, playing in the Algarve Cup, the European Championship and the China Cup before this tournament. We’ve learnt a lot through that experience, like how to cope with playing a number of games in a short amount of time and playing against top-quality sides.”

The return of Katie Chapman to the England midfield after serving a one-match ban will give them a considerable lift against the US and will help to compensate for the absence of Fara Williams, who is suspended.

Despite their 2-1 defeat by Sweden in Tianjin yesterday, North Korea will face Germany, who won England’s group, in the last eight after sneaking through on goal difference. Tonight was supposed to be the last round of group action, but the expected arrival of Typhoon Wipha in Shanghai forced Fifa to reschedule two matches. The tropical storm caused schools to shut across China’s biggest city as 200,000 people were evacuated.

China will seek to claim their place in the last eight by overcoming New Zealand in Tianjin today. Denmark would then need to beat free-scoring Brazil in their rescheduled group D match in Hangzhou tomorrow to join them. Australia, Norway and Canada are vying for the top two places in group C.

Smith will have one eye on the golden boot if England extend their stay in the tournament into a third week. “Kelly Smith, Marta and Birgit Prinz, that sounds nice, doesn’t it?” she said. “They’re world-class players so it’s nice to be mentioned in the same breath.”

As befitting a strike from a sportsman of such a name, the goal appeared to be tantamount to a knock-out blow. And while Leicester could not be accused of throwing in the towel, their response was muted until, with seconds remaining, Richard Stearman equalised with a weak shot.

Smith got a hand to that, likewise the 20-yard effort from Stephen Clemence in the final seconds that averted the need for another half an hour of an already overextended encounter.

Nottingham Forest (4-4-2): P Smith - L Chambers, K Wilson, W Morgan, J Bennett – S Clingan, N Lennon (sub: J Perch, 76min), C Cohen, K Commons – J Agogo, N Tyson (sub: G Holt, 86). Substitutes not used: D Roberts, I Breckin, E Sinclair.

Leicester City (4-4-2): M Fulop – B N’Gotty (sub: R Stearman, 73), G McAuley, P Kisnorbo, A Sheehan – I Hume, J Wesolowski (sub: J Chambers, 19), S Clemence, J Mattock – M De Vries, D Campbell (sub: M Fryatt, 61). Substitutes not used: P Henderson, M Ferreira. Booked: Chambers, Kisnorbo

Leicester gift snatched back by Clemence

2007-09-20T08:21:00.003-07:00

Leicester gift snatched back by Clemence

A surreal beginning was at odds with a dramatic finale last night as Leicester City recorded a first win for Gary Megson, their new manager, and earned a third-round tie away to Aston Villa. The victory also represented a happy return to the City Ground for Megson, whose unsuccessful spell as Nottingham Forest manager ended 19 months ago. Predictably, his emergence from the players’ tunnel provided the cue for abuse from the Forest supporters, but after a sporting yet bizarre opening ten seconds, Megson and his team rose to the challenge.

A goal adrift when the initial meeting was abandoned because Clive Clarke, the Leicester defender, suffered a heart attack during the half-time interval, Leicester stood aside and allowed Paul Smith, the Forest goalkeeper, to amble from the halfway line, exchange high-fives with Marton Fulop, his opposite number, and prod home to restore the advantage.

The idea came from Milan Mandaric, the Leicester owner, Megson and Tim Davies, the club’s managing director, after Forest’s response to events in the ill-fated first meeting. “It was a gift from everyone at Leicester City for the way Forest behaved in the first game,” Mandaric said. “We wanted to show that morality and fair play are not dead in the game.”

Although the plan was hatched on Sunday, it was kept secret from Forest until two minutes before the kick-off, to avoid any possible skulduggery. “We had to keep as quiet as we could because of the gambling angle,” Megson said. “I told Colin Calderwood [the Forest manager] just before kick-off and it was agreed I would decide which Forest player would score.”

In the event, Smith, arguably culpable for the two goals Leicester scored in as many minutes to turn the tie on its head, proved a more accomplished striker than custodian. By contrast, Leicester were indebted to Fulop for maintaining their chances of victory.

It was Fulop who prevented Forest from doubling their lead from a more conventional passage of play, nullifying a counter-attack by forcing Junior Agogo to take the ball wide and presented him with a significantly reduced target.

Through the pace of Nathan Tyson and Agogo, Forest appeared to have the greater cutting edge and Leicester needed a set-piece to restore parity when Alan Sheehan curled a free kick round the defensive wall.

Having drawn level, Leicester were rescued again by Fulop when the goalkeeper, diving to his left, palmed away a goalbound header from Luke Chambers. The near-miss served as a spur to Forest and they, rather than their Coca-Cola Championship opponents, looked the more likely to score.

Megson attempted to address his team’s impotence by introducing Matty Fryatt at the expense of DJ Campbell, but within seconds of the change, Forest went ahead again, this time through Tyson. Set up by a superb long pass from Kris Commons, the Forest striker dispatched a low, left-foot shot past Fulop.

New shares buyout adds to turmoil at Arsenal

2007-09-20T08:21:00.001-07:00

New shares buyout adds to turmoil at Arsenal

The prospects of a hostile takeover of Arsenal by Alisher Usmanov increased yesterday after it was announced that the Uzbekistan billionaire has taken his holding to 21 per cent, making him the Barclays Premier League leaders’ second-biggest shareholder. Sources close to Usmanov said that a takeover bid is not imminent, although gaining overall control of the club is his long-term intention.

The tangled web is complicated by Arsène Wenger’s friendship with David Dein, the former vice-chairman of Arsenal who presented himself last month as the chairman of Red and White Holdings, Usmanov’s investment vehicle, although the manager was quick to make clear his scepticism about the need for new investment at the club.

Dein was introduced to Usmanov, a Moscow-based steel magnate, after being ousted from the Arsenal board in April, but he returned to the scene three weeks ago by selling him his 14.58 per cent shareholding. Usmanov has acted speedily to increase his stake further, with the vast bulk of the extra 6.4 per cent shares announced yesterday sold to him by Lansdowne Partners, the investment company that held about 3 per cent.

Usmanov is believed to have paid as much as ￡10,250 per share for Lansdowne’s stake - way above the market price of ￡8,000 – while securing a further 0.5 per cent from smaller shareholders for about ￡2.6 million. The speed with which the steel tycoon and Dein have acted will be seen as an aggressive statement of intent, which the club are determined to resist.

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Wenger said on the eve of the club’s opening Champions League group match against Seville at the Emirates Stadium tonight: “Of course you care who is on the board because some people are more intrusive than others. But the tradition at Arsenal Football Club has always been for a manager to do his work like he wants to do it. What is important to me is that the board have faith in me and let me work like I want to work. It's difficult to be successful when there is no harmony.”

The Arsenal board has an agreement preventing it trading in shares until next April, which it is considering extending for another 12 months. Danny Fiszman, Lady Nina Bracewell-Smith and Richard Carr, the leading shareholders, have said that they will not sell, giving Usmanov limited options because Stan Kroenke, the American billionaire, has also rejected the opportunity to work with Red and White after extensive conversations with Dein.

“The directors don’t need to reassure me because they have already said they don’t need to sell,” Wenger said. “For me it looks to be settled, the situation at the club. We are in a position where I don’t feel there’s uncertainty surrounding the ownership.”

Michael Owen shows optimism after another injury scan

2007-09-20T08:20:00.005-07:00

Michael Owen shows optimism after another injury scan
Michael Owen had a scan yesterday to determine the extent of his niggling groin injury, but the Newcastle United striker is optimistic that surgery can be avoided, minimising disruption for club and country. The 27-year-old has been inconvenienced rather than troubled by the problem for a number of weeks, during which time he has been in excellent form.

Owen was substituted in the 55th minute of Newcastle’s 1-0 defeat away to Derby County on Monday night, having complained of discomfort at half-time. While he was prepared to play on, Sam Allardyce, his manager, took the precautionary decision to withdraw him from the fray, raising concerns that his fitness was once again an issue.

With vital matches against Estonia and Russia next month, there would also be ramifications for England. Owen scored three goals in his most recent international appearances, against Israel and Russia last week, and Steve McClaren, the head coach, has already lost Emile Heskey for the next round of European Championship qualifying fixtures.

The results of Owen’s scan are still be pored over, but the striker remains in positive fettle, no operation has been planned and if one became necessary the procedure would be routine, necessitating an absence of less than a fortnight. He expects to be involved against West Ham United at St James’ Park on Sunday.

However, given the extent of Owen’s injury history on Tyneside - he has started only 15 league matches since joining Newcastle from Real Madrid in 2005 and has been hampered by metatarsal, anterior cruciate ligament and thigh problems – caution is necessary. Allardyce has conceded that Owen will require rehabilitation for the rest of his career after his lengthy recuperation in the wake of the World Cup finals.

In football, on the pitch as well as off it, quick fixes are unusual and Allardyce has played down his side’s prospects this season. After a successful summer in the transfer market and a sequence of five matches without defeat, the mood among supporters on Tyneside had been healthy, but a limp performance at Pride Park confirmed that hard work is still required.

“Top six? We are not talking about the top six,” Allardyce said. “Newcastle finished eighth-bottom last season and we have come in and changed a lot of things around and that has showed in our performance at Derby. We didn’t go there expecting to win. A draw would have been a good result.”

Their subsequent loss was anything but; yet players refused to grasp at easy excuses. “The game was a bit of an embarrassment,” Nicky Butt, the midfield player, said. “No disrespect to Derby, but they’re not one of the top guns. We didn’t prove ourselves against them and we’ve only got ourselves to blame for that.”

Michel Platini calls for protection of traditional football values

2007-09-20T08:20:00.003-07:00

Michel Platini calls for protection of traditional football values

Michel Platini, the Uefa president, has written to Gordon Brown asking for his help in battling "the malign and ever-present influence of money" in the modern game.

Platini's letter, which was sent to all European leaders, calls on governments to accept their role as "the last hope for a healthy and balanced future of European football".

England has been a hotbed for foreign investment in recent years and with the current broadcast deal far outstripping its predecessors the professional game is currently awash with cash. And Platini fears the prevalence of money could lead to a dangerous shift in traditional values.

Platini's letter said: "A serious threat hangs over the development of European football: the malign and ever-present influence of money.

"Money has always been in sport and football has had a professional component for 150 years. But money has never been the ultimate objective of football: the main purpose has always been to win trophies.

"For the first time we may be entering an era in which financial profit alone will be the measure of sporting success."

There had been speculation that the new European Union Reform Treaty would give football's governing bodies more power to tackle inequalities in the game as well as battling doping and a lack of homegrown talent in teams - a problem the Barclays Premier League suffers chronically from.

But Platini is upset that recommendations proposed by Jose Luis Arnaut, a Portuguese minister, have been rejected in favour of a less strongly-worded article which many fear could leave the sport open to legal challenges from clubs and players who do not agree with any tough new measures.

"This article doesn't go far enough to protect football from the rampant commercialism which assails on all sides," Platini said.

"Millions of football fans, for whom I speak, are calling on Europe to do more to defend our football and the European sporting model based on financial solidarity between rich and poor, which is the only way to guarantee the values we cherish.

"If I am turning to you, the heads of state of government, it is because you represent the last hope for a healthy and balanced future of European football."

Supportive Sven-Goran Eriksson advises Stephen Ireland to visit psychologist

2007-09-20T08:20:00.001-07:00

Supportive Sven-Goran Eriksson advises Stephen Ireland to visit psychologist

The curious case of Stephen Ireland took another twist yesterday with the discovery of a website on which the Manchester City midfield player, who admitted last week to lying that his grandmother had died to excuse himself from international duty, claims not to like the sport that could make him a multimillionaire.

Ireland had been urged to see a psychologist by Sven-G?ran Eriksson, the City manager, who criticised the player’s “stupidity” for lying about the reasons for his withdrawal from the Ireland squad before their European Championship qualifying match away to the Czech Republic a week ago.

The deceit was uncovered when both his grandmothers declared themselves alive and well, and the 21-year-old issued a lengthy apology in a statement on Friday, saying that he had lied to be with his girlfriend, Jessica, after she had had a miscarriage.

There is considerable sympathy at City and at the Football Association of Ireland over the player’s circumstances, but there is also concern about his behaviour in lying and in failing to return for training in Manchester after the truth emerged. Eriksson spoke to him at length on Monday, when the player returned to the club, and advised him to speak to a psychologist. This promises to be an interesting exercise to judge from Ireland’s home page on the Bebo website, which was circulated on the internet yesterday.

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On the website, which allows users to interact with each other and to share photographs as well as their musings on life, Ireland, who calls himself “Daddy Dick”, says that “football is s***” and asks “why did I get stuck doin [sic] it?”. The tone appears to be more flippant than serious, but, given that he earns more than ￡10,000 a week and is widely regarded as one of the most promising youngsters in the Barclays Premier League, it is a comment that is unlikely to do much for his reputation.

Eriksson left Ireland out of his squad for the 1-0 win at home to Aston Villa on Sunday, partly because of fears over his state of mind, but has made it clear that there will be no long-term repercussions for Ireland over his actions.

Steve Staunton, the Ireland manager, has offered his support but will think carefully before deciding whether to include the youngster in his plans for next month’s qualifying matches at home to Germany and Cyprus.

At club and country there is an acute awareness of the need to protect him, rather than to allow his talent to be undermined by a well-meaning but unpredictable personality and an unstable family background.

“We should not kill him,” Eriksson said when asked about the player’s conduct on Friday. “It was stupid, a stupid thing to do because always you should tell the truth, but he must not be crucified for the rest of his life, absolutely not. I want to speak to him and then it is finished. Life goes on. Stephen Ireland is a fantastic football player. He’s young and maybe he has some problems now and maybe in the past, but I like him very much as a football player and as a person.”

Liverpool must do better, urges Steven Gerrard

2007-09-20T08:19:00.004-07:00

Liverpool must do better, urges Steven Gerrard

Rafa Benitez and Steven Gerrard, the Liverpool manager and captain, are in total agreement that Liverpool cannot afford a repeat of the dismal performance against Porto last night.

The five times European champions somehow managed to salvage a draw, despite turning in one of the worst performances abroad in their illustrious history.

Liverpool trailed to an early Lucho Gonzalez penalty, and there could have been even further in arrears before Dirk Kuyt headed them level nine minutes later.

Benitez insisted afterwards that he will never tolerate such a display of incompetence again and Gerrard, who played again despite his fractured toe, was just as scathing in his post mortem of the performance.

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“We just did not match up to our own standards,” Gerrard said. “A point away from home in the Champions League is a good result but we’re disappointed with the way we played. We didn’t start well and never really recovered.

“We had ten men for the last 35 minutes [Jermaine Pennant was sent off for two yellow cards] so we had to grind out, and work hard for the result.

“We normally start well in Champions League games and we’re usually a really good side away from home in Europe, but we did not match those standards against Porto.

“We’ve built a successful team in Europe on starting well, making it difficult for the opposition, being good in possession and very good on the counter-attack. All these things did not go well this time.

“We’ve been in two finals in the past three seasons but we never reached those standards in Porto. Before the game, maybe we would have taken a point because Porto are a good side with really dangerous attacking players.

“But they can expect a different Liverpool when they come to Anfield, and if we can take four points off them, it will stand us in good stead in the group stages.”

Benitez now has a fortnight to prepare for group leaders Marseille and their visit to Anfield. Any repeat then of Tuesday’s ineptitude will put qualification for the last 16 severely at risk.

“It was not up to scratch, especially in the first half, this was not the way Liverpool play,” Benitez said. “We were surprised by the way we played. We kept giving the ball away, we made mistakes that are just not normal for us.

“It is an experience we will not repeat. We must learn from our mistakes to make sure that does not happen.

“Next time we know we must start the game properly, it is something we need to change in the future to make sure we start correctly.

“The players know that we did not do well and they know we did not start well. They are very aware that this experience must not be repeated. They will know that, and we know that.

“I am certain that this will not happen again, the future will be totally different, will not play like that again.”

Mother of Natasha Coombs dies on same railway line

2007-09-20T08:19:00.003-07:00

Mother of Natasha Coombs dies on same railway line

The mother of a teenage girl who died on a railway line five weeks ago has been found dead on the same stretch of track, police sources said today.

Joanne Coombs, 40, was found dead at Manningtree, Essex, last night. Her daughter, Natasha, was found dead near the same spot in August, days after disappearing.

Police would only say officially today that there had been a death. They would not confirm the identity of the dead person but sources said the body found was that of Mrs Coombs. Police were at the Coombs family home in Harwich, Essex, last night

The body of Natasha Coombs, 17, was found in undergrowth near a railway line at Manningtree station last month. She had disappeared after a night out with friends in Ipswich on July 27.

The results of a postmortem examination on the clerical assistant, of Dovercourt, Essex, indicated that she had died after sustaining injuries that were consistent with being hit by a train. Police used dental records to identify the body.

A mobile phone, clothing and a handbag were discovered close to Miss Coombs body. The teenager disappeared after she boarded a late-night train in Ipswich. She had called her parents while she was travelling back but her mobile-phone signal went “off network” at 11.19pm in the Manningtree area.

Police believe that Miss Coombs might have been upset about splitting up with her boyfriend. Hours before the body was found, Joshua Brennan, 18, her former boyfriend, had appealed for Miss Coombs to come home, describing her as “the best person” in his life.

Chelsea get empty feeling as fans give draw a miss

2007-09-20T08:19:00.001-07:00

Chelsea get empty feeling as fans give draw a miss

Roman Abramovich has demanded two Champions League trophies in the next six years, but the Chelsea owner will be out of luck if his team perform as unconvincingly as they did against Rosenborg last night. The Norwegian champions deserved their 1-1 draw and the boos at the end reflected the home supporters’ dissatisfaction. What will also unsettle Abramovich is that those fans declined to turn up in their usual domestic droves. The crowd of 24,973 was the lowest at Stamford Bridge for four years.

They saw Chelsea recover from a 1-0 half-time deficit in their opening group B match and at least Abramovich enjoyed the sight of Andriy Shevchenko, his favourite son, scoring the second-half equaliser and generally shining amid the uninspiring individual displays around him.

It was the third match in a row that Chelsea have failed to win, after the 2-0 league defeat away to Aston Villa and the 0-0 draw at home to Blackburn Rovers, and José Mourinho was clearly perturbed by another lacklustre performance. “Am I alarmed? Of course, I am not happy,” the manager said. “Against Blackburn and Rosenborg we did enough to win both matches. The history of the game is that we could not score more than one goal in 20 shots.

“These are the type of games that you normally win, at home against a team that is usually the weakest in the group. But we are not scared of the situation we find ourselves in. Maybe we will need to get four points against Valencia but . . . it is not a drama.”

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Chelsea badly missed the injured Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba and Mourinho confirmed that neither is likely to be fit for the Barclays Premier League match against Manchester United at Old Trafford in Sunday.

By contrast, Liverpool were hugely grateful for their 1-1 draw, away to FC Porto. Behind after eight minutes to Lucho González’s penalty, they equalised through Dirk Kuyt’s header and though rarely looking in trouble afterwards, the quality of their performance left much to be desired.

Liverpool also had Jermaine Pennant sent off for a second bookable offence and the winger may face further punishment if Lubos Michel, the Slovakian referee, reports him for taking almost a minute to leave the pitch.

Rafael Benítez admitted that his team had played poorly. “The first half we started really badly,” the manager said. “We were making so many mistakes. The second half was better, but it’s very difficult with ten players. We needed to show character to get the result and I think we did that.”

When it comes to the crunch, that new Apple iPhone will cost ￡900

2007-09-20T08:18:00.004-07:00

When it comes to the crunch, that new Apple iPhone will cost ￡900

Apple’s iPhone, the year’s most hyped gadget, arrived in Britain yesterday with a starting price tag of ￡899.

The basic handset will cost ￡269 – ￡69 more than in the US. But Britons must also sign up to a contract costing ￡35 to ￡55 a month with O2 , Apple’s chosen network partner, for a minimum of 18 months. That puts the cost of the handset and contract at between ￡899 and ￡1,259 over 18 months.

The gadget – a mobile phone, iPod music player and internet surfer – will be available only on the O2 network. However, several websites claim that they can unlock the device so that it will work on rival networks. It will go on sale on November 9 and be available in Carphone Warehouse stores, O2 shops and Apple outlets.

Some analysts questioned whether the gadget was too expensive to have mass-market appeal. In Britain, one of the world’s most competitive mobile phone markets, most handsets are included in the price of a contract.

James Barford, of Enders Analysis, a telecoms and media research group, said: “Charging ￡269 for a handset with a contract is very expensive. This is not mass-market pricing.”

But Steve Jobs, the chief executive of Apple, maintained that it was fairly priced. “It is three awesome products in one. It’s a breakthrough phone, leagues different from what you can do today, and it is really easy to use,” he said at Apple’s main store in London. “Sometimes you get what you pay for.”

The handset cost more in Britain, he said, because of VAT and because it was “a little bit more expensive to do business over here”.

Other analysts said that the phone – which has a wide, colour touch-screen and eight gigabytes of memory (about 2,000 songs) – would win on its aesthetic appeal and because of the Apple brand.

Ben Wood, of CCS Insight, the research group, said: “There is no doubt this will be one of the hottest consumer electronics items out there this Christmas. It’s a ‘wow’ product.” The handset has already been snapped up by more than a million Americans – with 270,000 sold within 30 hours when it first went on sale in June.

O2 , which has 17.8 million customers in Britain, beat other mobile phone networks for the right to market the phone. Vodafone, Nokia and Sony-Ericsson are marketing rival devices and services in an effort to prevent their customers from moving to Apple over the Christmas period.

O2 is thought to have agreed to hand back about 10 per cent of subscriber revenues each month to Apple, which aims to sell 10 million iPhones by the end of next year. The Californian group is confident that it will have more success than traditional phone companies in encouraging the use of lucrative “data” services.

Despite spending ￡22.5 billion on the licences for 3G mobile internet connections, the bulk of their revenues – more than 90 per cent – are still drawn from calls and texts. Unlike many products, the iPhone does not work over third-generation technology. Instead, it uses Edge technology, with speeds somewhere between 2.5G and 3G. For faster speeds, users can connect to “wi-fi hotspots”. Apple is working on a 3G version for late next year. Introducing one now, Mr Jobs said, would have compromised the long battery life.

Botox and a rub down

2007-09-20T08:18:00.003-07:00

Botox and a rub down

Spas used to mean oat masks, aromatherapy oils and sympathetic young women called Kirsty going on about your chakras. But something is afoot in the world of towelling, with less emphasis on R&R and more on “medispas”.

The old platitudes are being superseded by a shiny new pragmatism involving on the one hand speedy results-led treatments such as Botox, fillers and peels and, at the other extreme, the kind of nip-and-tuck interventions usually categorised as “work”. Kirsty and her ilk have been usurped by bright young medics with dermatology specialisations, glycolic peels have replaced lavender oil, and the pan pipes have been binned.

Medispas are busting out all over the UK. Examples include Renew Medica, which professes to be “bringing Harley Street to the high street” and has seven southern branches. Myspa clinics have established themselves as the footballer’s wife aestheticians of choice with outposts in Cheshire, Newcastle and Liverpool. Meanwhile, Harvey Nichols has put itself at the forefront of this trend in resolving that its Beyond Spa (beyondspa.co.uk), should focus on peels and injectables rather than mud wraps and Tibetan bells.

The medispa, then, could not appear more modish: a choice between rhinoplasty with the rhinos, or shopping and a filler fix at some ritzy department store. But is there a downside? Just how medical are medispas and should you be putting your face in their hands?

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The rise of the medispa is not confined to these shores. A recent Mintel survey of health and wellness holidays argues that, where “once holiday makers were happy to return home with a suntan and a bottle of the local hooch”, today their mementos may include “a new look and maybe even new body parts”. It estimates that we spend about ￡60 million a year on medical tourism, half of which is cosmetic. The savings are remarkable: a facelift may cost as little as ￡300 in Bangkok, but several thousand at home. Plus the patient can pass off the transformation as a postholiday glow.

Typically, such packages are arranged by unqualified agents who meet patients in London hotel rooms, then escort them to spas in Africa and Eastern Europe. Belgium, Poland, Argentina, Malaysia, India, South Africa and Thailand have all proved popular, with America – home of 1,250 medispas and with a 33 per cent growth rate predicted this year – a more costly, but no less appealing, alternative.

Harvey Nichols’ take on the vogue may be called Beyond Spa, but the services it offers are not too far beyond.

Indeed, the brains behind the scheme, the American cosmetic surgeon Barry Cohen, is proud of his conservative approach. “I’ve seen fads in plastic surgery come and go. Some were completely ineffective or even harmful. Examples such as radiofrequency treatment which supposedly stimulates collagen using two electrodes, but instead it causes fat to atrophy and skin to hang off the face, sometimes requiring a facelift to correct the damage; permanent fillers which caused lumps and scars; and various light machines, again designed to stimulate collagen, but which had no real efficacy,” he says.

“My view is that, if I would not offer it to a member of my own family, then I won’t do it to a patient.”

So expect Botox, fillers, lasers, hardcore exfoliation, and teeth whitening, but not, say, mesotherapy (aka smart liposuction), which has been frowned on by the American Society of Plastic Surgery, and yet is all the rage elsewhere in the UK.

Only five months after its launch, Beyond Spa already boasts regulars, and prides itself on the relationship it has built up with clients. Dr Preema Vig, the spa’s medical director, tells me that she has already refused repeat Botox for one customer after an interlude of a mere three months rather than the usual four months. Her colleague, Dr Anil Budh-Raja, politely refuses me the needle too, explaining that I am in pretty decent nick.

We settle on a glycolic hand peel, a zapping of the odd vein, and microdermabrasion, which leaves me temporarily ruddy, but refreshingly unStepford. Moreover, given Anil Budh-Raja’s background as a GP, I get some general medical advice thrown in. I could not feel in safer hands.

However, this may not be the case in less professional medispas, some of which may offer more hazardous procedures. Cosmetic surgery proper is, of course, regulated. However, the Government announced that it has no intention of regulating the country’s estimated 4,000 providers of Botox and fillers, a move that had been anticipated for April this year. The justification for this volte face was that the industry has shown a genuine commitment towards self-regulation. “The Government bottled out,” says Jenny Driscoll, a health campaigner for the consumer association Which? “No one wanted this. Even the industry was asking for regulation. It’s an incredibly laid-back approach to people’s health.”

Botox is a prescription drug and can be administered only by doctors, nurses working under their authority, or dentists. Yet anecdotal evidence suggests that some spas may be offering injectables by itinerant practitioners with scant understanding of their impact on the face.

Wendy Lewis, an independent cosmetic surgery consultant and author, aka the Knife Coach (wlbeauty.com), argues that medispa disaster stories are “quite common”. “I saw one client recently who had laser work done at a medispa,” she recalls. “The technician was inexperienced, and she got a bad burn that blistered. She tried to complain, but the owner would not even speak with her.

“Another lady had a filler done in her lips. She wasn’t even told what filler, and it hurt terribly. She complained and was told that the woman who did it had been made redundant and there was nothing they could do. I ended up sending her to a proper doctor to have her lips corrected.”

Lewis’s conclusion: “Basically, any clinic or salon can call itself a medispa. All over the UK, untrained people are doing treatments on unsuspecting women. My advice would be to pick a doctor for your injections and laser therapy; pick a spa to have a facial or massage.” The situation abroad is still more uncharted. As long ago as June 2004 the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (BAAPS) was warning against the pitfalls of the ostensibly budget overseas options.

Norman Waterhouse, a former president of BAAPS, says: “Patients usually have no knowledge of the competence and experience of the surgeon, and there is very little prospect of follow-up. They are only meeting their specialist immediately before a procedure, at which point they are committed to and have paid for surgery. Patients then return to the UK without adequate medical records, if any.” The surgeons are not registered in Britain, and it is unlikely that there will be any revisional surgery.

Travel insurance is designed to cover events beyond the policyholders’ control, not planned medical procedures. Peter Staddon, of the British Insurers Brokers’ Association, advises prospective patients to “establish with the clinic what their protocols and expenses would be in the event of an infection or complications after surgery and look at some form of legal expenses insurance which is relevant within that country, to access justice should you need it.”

WHAT ARE THE RISKS?

For more information on cosmetic and noncosmetic treatments, what treatments to go for and what the risks are, take a look at which.co.uk/cosmetic Seek advice from an independent consultant such as Wendy Lewis: log on to wlbeauty.com

FOR UK PRACTITIONERS

For consultants specialising in Botox and Restylane in the UK, contact the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons; visit baaps.org.uk/ To check out a UK medispa’s credentials: the Private and Voluntary Healthcare Directorate of the watchdog, the Health Commission, regulates all private clinics registered to provide cosmetic surgery in England (healthcare commission.org. uk/). Its yearly inspection reports should be available from any registered clinic. Outside England, the Scottish Executive (scotland.gov.uk/) and Healthcare Inspectorate Wales (hiw.org.uk/)

LOOKING FOR A SURGERY ABROAD?

The International Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (isaps.org) has an advanced global Surgeon Finder search tool. Consult the tips of US medispa doctors at spafinder.com/ spaguide/types/medical/ beautyandmedicine.jsp

Medispas by numbers

￡30 million Amount spent in UK on cosmetic tourism annually

1,250 Number of medispas in the United States

￡300 The cost of a facelift in Bangkok

700,000 The number of cosmetic procedures in the UK last year

￡3,700 The average price of cosmetic surgery in the UK

3 months The minimum time most people spend researching a treatment

Cinq Mondes Spa, Beau-Rivage Palace, Lausanne, Switzerland

2007-09-20T08:18:00.001-07:00

Cinq Mondes Spa, Beau-Rivage Palace, Lausanne, Switzerland

USP The Cinq Mondes spa sits beneath the immaculate gardens of the five-star Beau-Rivage Palace Hotel by the shore of Lake Geneva in Lausanne. The hotel, built in 1861, hosted the famously choosy Coco Chanel - even she would love the spa. Cinq Mondes follows five guidelines: no silicone, mineral oils, artificial colourings or 'primary animal matter' is used and everything is dermatologically tested. It shamelessly and convincingly plunders and repackages Cinq Mondes' famous French spa - Rituels de Beaute du Monde. Open nearly two years now, there are only a handful of Cinq Mondes spas in the world, adding to the exclusivity. It's back to basics in extremely luxurious but contemporary surroundings.

AMBIENCE The recently renovated hotel is fussy and grand like a big wedding cake. In total contrast the spa offers acres of streamlined, minimalist calm. There are only nine treatment rooms in the whole place so it's spacious. I experienced all three components of my Rituel Royal Du Siam in one suite - no waiting around. The floors are dark wood and walls are polished plaster. Even the muzack is minimal - no pan-pipes! Glass walls give views of the pool which stretches outdoors. This view becomes a vista as the Alps soar across the Lake. Pause in the changing rooms to experience the hot and cold pleasures of the Tropical Rainshower Walk. Bespectacled spa-goers should beware the glass walls.

QUALITY OF EXPERIENCE I had the Rituel Royal du Siam. There was nothing Siamese about a Japanese Aroma and Flowers Bath, Papaya Radiance Scrub and Balinese Massage. Walid, a strong, silent Tunisian, used around two to do all three treatments. The Japanese bath was not restful as I had to perform origami to squeeze my 6 foot 3 inch body into it. Getting out, Walid ignored my hideous disposable pants and led me to a heated couch for twenty minutes of scrubbing. Never have I felt so clean. After a quick shower it was massage time. Using elbows and forearms as well as hands, Walid became a Vishnu-like multi-armed god. Flipping me like a burger he continued stretching and pulling. The supposedly Egyptian oils were musky and warming. It was like a Thai massage without clothes. Pouring myself into my robe, I staggered into the changing rooms.

IN CROWD Swiss discretion rules - Naomi Campbell could sashay in and no one would notice. The hotel hosts visiting Presidents and Prime Ministers (the Treaty of Lausanne was signed here in 1923). Recent politicos have included Nelson Mandela. There is usually at least one star here flogging Swiss watches (notably Cindy Crawford). There are lots of rich, anonymous ladies of leisure - some sporting the giant sunglasses which scream 'I've just had plastic surgery!" Men and women alike seem to have a tiny lapdog as part of their luggage. It's more European than American. Spa goers are surprisingly mixed - around a third are men. The saunas are not mixed (and most men went naked). If you're under 30 you might be mistaken for a member of staff. The hotel is child-friendly but the spa was pleasingly child-free.

FOOD Lausanne and locale offer up a galaxy of Michelin starred restaurants. The lavish La Rotonde links both wings of the hotel. It was recently awarded its star for the delicacy of its langoustines. The five-course Chef Menu is ￡41 (CHF 98) and features foie gras. The wine cellar has 75,000 bottles so go steady. Service is formal and you need jacket and tie. Downstairs, Café Beau-Rivage is more casual and there's usually someone singing to the tinkling on the grand piano. In the summer a 'healthy grill' pops up by the outdoor pool (it's open to hotel residents only). If you can drag yourself out of the hotel L'Accademia Italian restaurant is round the corner at the H?tel Angleterre & Résidence. No trip to Switzerland is complete without fondue and there's no shortage of it. Just don't fill up on bread and cheese before a massage.

WALLET WATCH Surprisingly, the spa is affordable even for those lacking Swiss bank accounts. The cheapest treatments are approx ￡32 (CHF 75). These last for 20 minutes and examples include an Aromatic Scrub with Spices, a Regenerating Body Wrap and Reflexology. All are included in the five-day package along with a further three massages (including Balinese) and assorted cosmetics treatments. Price is ￡500 (CHF 1180), not including accommodation. The cheapest two-day package is ￡210 (CHF 495). The hotel's cheapest rooms start at ￡220 per double and they're still pretty luxurious.

You can use the spa without staying at the hotel and can get treatments as late as 9pm for no extra charge. It's okay to walk around the hotel in your dressing gown but few people do. As ever, the robes are too small for most men and the paper pants worn during treatments are an exercise in self-castration. Switzerland is in Europe but not the Euro so take some Swiss Francs (CHF). Advertised room rates are negotiable. Ask for a lake view.

From Genèva International Airport: 35 minutes by car or 40 minutes by train.

NEED TO KNOW Beau-Rivage Palace, Place du Port 17-19, CH-1000 Lausanne (+41 21 613 33 33; www.brp.ch)

Glad to be grey

2007-09-20T08:17:00.006-07:00

Glad to be grey

Anne Kreamer was 49 when she winced at a photograph of herself. She was pictured alongside her teenage daughter and her old friend Aki, whose hair was now grey. Alongside them she appeared, she had to admit, “like a confused, schlubby middle-aged woman with a much-too-darkly shellacked helmet of hair”. She had hitherto thought her long dark hair made her look youthful. Now she saw her pretence for what it was – pretence. She decided that in her 50th year she would embrace “authenticity”.

Going Gray(as she calls her book) was not a decision taken lightly. Kreamer and her husband Kurt Andersen, the novelist, live in Manhattan, surrounded by metropolitan media chic. Andersen writes for New York magazine and hosts a radio arts programme. They founded Spy magazine with Graydon Carter. Nora Ephron, screenwriter and wit, is a good friend. Ephron’s recent book, I Feel Bad About My Neck, stated unequivocally that you can’t be grey-haired in a creative milieu. “What has transformed women’s lives in our lifetime is not feminism or aerobics,” Ephron wrote. “What has kept them in the workplace is hair dye.”

Ephron had a good point. You wouldn’t catch me turning up at The Times with greying locks. Once a brunette, always a brunette! Grey hair makes women feel invisible. I’ve had the same long hair, same fringe since schooldays, and the same hairdresser (Smile, first in Knightsbridge, then the Kings Road) since 1969. It has been my prop: keeping the same hair, I could hold back the tide. Indeed, my time-warp brown bob darkened with age. At my last milestone birthday, my husband read out a parody of You are old, Father William. “You grow old, Mrs Grove,” the husband said. “Yet your hair has become very black . . .”

But recently I had a rethink, a lightbulb flash while sitting in the chair at Smile. The incomparable Chris cut my hair short, layered it and lightened it. It was amazing how different I felt. Younger, definitely. Unrecognisably so. People in our tennis club thought that my husband was playing with a New Woman. And my instinct was confirmed when Private Eye last week did one of their lookalikes – my Times mugshot, hilariously likened to Olivier playing Richard III.

Related Links
To dye or not to dye
So I was intrigued to meet Anne Kreamer, whose book is subtitled “What I learned about beauty, sex, work, motherhood, authenticity and everything else that really matters”. She looked terrific. Casual-chic, slender, and completely, naturally grey. Over a porridge breakfast in an Edinburgh hotel we agreed that we had clung on to our long dark fringed hairstyles because we thought they were almost talismanic, indicating that you belong to the age of rock’n’roll and are still jiving. Kreamer has, over the years, veered from brunette towards red and blonde, but she was jet-black on her 40th birthday, when her friend Larry told her she looked “like her own evil twin”. Yet she stayed on the tyrannical treadmill of hair-colour upkeep for another decade – $300 (￡148) a time, and three hours in the chair, at least every three weeks. But for whose benefit was she doing this? Like me, she was no longer going to an office every day, surrounded by Bright Young Things. So cui bono? “You’ve been married 30 years, you’re self-employed, your kids are almost adults – who are you kidding?” she asked herself.

The dilemma about succumbing to grey gave her sleepless nights. Would she remind her husband of his mother, as Jack Nicholson said in About Schmidt? Did their relationship hinge on the colour of her hair? One daughter said, go ahead; the younger one said she didn’t want “one of those old mommies”. But Kreamer grasped the nettle: to hell with media-induced cultural hysteria that dictates that grey is unsexy. Why not swim against the tide? Three months into her transformation, with two-tone hair, she almost backslid. Grey hair was like fog, rainy days, dirty laundry: a downer. She became a self-conscious wallflower at parties. In Los Angeles, land of the honed and toned and buffed and blonde, she shied away from joining the poolside narcissists at the Chateau Marmont Hotel. But at Martha’s Vineyard, among East Coast intellectuals, the idea of fussing over appearance suddenly seemed shallow, sinful; here she realised that nobody cares a whit what anyone else’s hair looks like.

And so she emerged, hair grey and shorter, feeling “sleek and light and sophisticated and unencumbered and optimistic”. She was saving thousands of dollars, and hours of time – and she still got “Hey, beautiful!” calls in the street. This was the real revelation. Men find grey hair sexy. Men read youth in “attitude and energy and vitality, and the way a woman carries herself”. She experimented with theoretical internet dating: posting herself as 50, separated, living in Brooklyn, no children – first as a brunette, then after three months posting the same information but substituting “silver hair”. “And do you know, four times as many men ‘winked’ me – which is the online term for wanting to know you better – with my hair grey! Maybe this is unique to New York, I thought. So I tried it in Chicago and LA as well: and the national average was that three times as many men were interested in me with grey hair.

“I was dumbfounded. It was counter-intuitive! We’re scared of losing our sexual attractiveness, but the exact opposite happened.” Perhaps, she concluded, at the age of 50, honesty and authenticity is valued by mature males.

She didn’t actually go through the charade of dating anyone. But she did go bar-hopping (with a couple of friends for protection) and discovered that the hair was no barrier – “It’s all in the vibes” – although as a friendly bartender advised, she’d be better off alone. “I met one guy, 36, a merchant marine, cute, earnest, unmarried. I could have carried it further but I’m not a good dissembler.”

What about the other lurking fear – being unwanted in the workplace? When she worked at MTV, looking young had been “nonnegotiable”. Now, masquerading as a “returner” whose children had grown up, she was advised by headhunters that she was no longer hirable, except as a consultant. A grey-haired woman over 40 is regarded as out of touch, even if she has expertise: “Not a good fit” is US employers’ code for too old. “On Wall Street there is only one woman, Ellen Levine of the Hearst Corporation, with fabulous white hair. But she refused to be interviewed: she didn’t want to be known as the only white-haired woman on Wall Street.”

The paradox, Kreamer points out, is that despite women’s progress, the range of acceptable women’s looks has narrowed. In the shoulder-padded 1980s when baby boomers turned 40, the illusion of perma-youthfulness became obligatory. The breach between the dyers and nondyers is as great as that between women in paid work and those who stay at home and look after their children. And there is a sense of moral superiority in mothering and going grey.

Image consultants advised Kreamer to up-date her clothes, to alter her palette of colours and improve her silhouette (she shed 15lb, previously camouflaged by her youthful hairstyle). Ninety seven per cent of the respondents in her survey actually said that they would rather be thin and grey than overweight with coloured hair. But perhaps her most interesting discovery was that in the world of politics, “where maturity and experience should matter”, out of 16 female senators aged 54 to 76, not one has grey hair. If she finds a British publisher she will turn her gaze on the equivalent Blair babes and other women MPs. She has noticed, on holiday this summer in Gloucestershire, the Lake District and Scotland, a greater prevalence of grey here than in the US. Perhaps, she suspects, thanks to the European reverence for old buildings and classical architecture, women enjoy a richer range of acceptable beauty.

If only she were more French, instead of being so American, she writes. Catherine Deneuve, Isabel Adjani and Juliette Binoche manage to age with inherent style, without great artifice and without the American obsession with looking youthful. She sought advice from Mireille Giuliano, author of French Women Don’t Get Fat, who explained that French men value women of any age who are “ bien dans sa peau” (comfortable in their skins). It gives them a quiet confidence and serenity, that seductive je ne sais quoi.

Men (who are increasingly prone to dye their hair) should observe George Clooney, Richard Gere, Paul Newman, Steve Martin – all gorgeously grey. I asked Kreamer’s husband – whose hair is almost suspiciously dark – how he liked being anchored to a grey-haired woman. “It was Anne’s decision. I have never particularly noticed women’s hair colour, which is odd given that I earn my living as an observer. I think her hair is lovely, and I’m glad she’s not spending hundreds of dollars a month. But it’s not in the top five or even ten things I care about with regard to my wife.”

It’s definitely in her top five, though. Its significance goes beyond external appearance. “Having become honest about my looks, I became more honest in dealing straight with people,” she told me. “It’s about growing up, evolving as a person, letting go of crutches I don’t need. I didn’t anticipate this, but I feel tremendously more grounded and confident with my hair its natural colour.”

Could I be as brave? No. Not yet. If I ever do take the plunge, I know short hair will make it easier. “But I don’t want people to feel bad about colouring their hair,” Kreamer says. “I just want women to feel that they have a choice. You can age any way you want to, and be comfortable about it. Just because I don’t dye my hair doesn’t mean I can’t go out and buy a pair of Manolos.”

The week starts here . . .

2007-09-20T08:17:00.005-07:00

The week starts here . . .

The parties and pit stops

You need serious stamina, a liver of steel and an infinite wardrobe to survive the champagne-fuelled round of fashion week parties. The festivities kick off on Saturday with the Mulberry tea party, while on Sunday there is the launch of Diane Von Fursten-berg’s new UK shop and the Mo?t Mirage Evening. As part of the latter, the public are invited to join in releasing the “golden spectacle”, an installation of illuminated balloons over Holland Park (visit londonfashionweek.co.uk), while the private party will feature a gothic fairground and guests such as Sienna Miller. Expect to see Agyness Deyn, model of the moment, spinning the tunes at the Boombox and M.A.C party to launch the Boombox book, on Tuesday, while Boombox cabs will ferry the fashion pack around. And where will guests be resting their weary feet after squeezing them into Prada’s curved
heels?

The Fashionista Pit Stop at the Intercontinental hotel will offer insiders two suites complete with smoothies, Elemis treatments, GHD hair-styling sessions and champagne. Fashion folk after a mug of builder’s tea will find it at Anya Hindmarch’s soon-to-open flagship store, where building work informs the refreshment theme.

If you thought Camden Market was people-watching heaven, you ain’t seen nothing yet. London Fashion Week might officially be about the clothes, but most attendees spend their time watching, well, the other attendees. The Front Row Girls, who encompass the crème de la crème of international press and buyers, are known not only for their gravity-defying heels and fashion-forward wardrobes, but also their handbags. These women are Ugly Betty’s worst nightmare.

On the opposite end of the fashion food chain is the omnipresent fashion student. Occupying the lowest rung of the LFW ladder, s/he is notable for über-strange fashion sense, which generally includes some type of industrial-looking jumpsuit and an equally confusing asymmetrical haircut. The PR girl occupies a place somewhere in the middle. A clipboard fiend who keeps the riffraff in check, she wears next season’s clothes and always looks polished – it’s best to stay on her right side, if you get what we mean. Lastly, and most amusingly, are the Rodnik boys. A design duo who are making waves with their collections – and making even more of a presence with their matching tuxedos and tiny pink umbrellas, under whose shade they spend the whole week. And there you were thinking that a Goth on a bike was an interesting sight.

The designers

The return of the established

–– Matthew Williamson
If Williamson can’t pull in an Alist front row (gold tickets to Sienna Miller, Kelis and Thandie Newton), no one can. But come on, it’s not all about the celebrideez – it’s all about the sequins, right? Expect hippy chic and some Pucci-inspired prints. And if that’s not enough, indulge yourself at his Design Museum exhibition on October 17.

–– Luella
The artist formerly known as Luella Bartley used to favour New York, but even across the Atlantic it was her consummate British sensibility that shone through (this time last year half her show consisted of tartan and tweed). Her return to the Motherland was thus inevitable – plus the small point of London Fashion Week coinciding with the opening of her London store on Monday. Expect huntin’/shootin’/fishin’ references mixed with street style.

The rise of the innovative

–– Duro Oluwu
This is a name to keep an eye on. The creator of a headline-grabbing dress and the recipient of the New Designer of the Year accolade at the British Fashion Awards in 2005, this Nigerian former lawyer promises African-inspired prints and plenty of colour.

–– Marios Schwab
One of the pioneers of the body-conscious trend, Schwab won the New Designer Award a year after Oluwu. His success was confirmed with his collaboration with Topshop – his second collection of evening dresses will be in store in February 2008.

–– Danielle Scutt
When the first collection from this Central St Martins graduate featured an off-the-shoulder dress – or rather off-the-bare-breast dress – London knew that it had a character on its hands. This is strong female design at its best, with sharply cut fitted jackets and pencil skirts. Long may it continue.

Play buzztrend bingo

The fashion community will be the only group in England praying that we don’t have an Indian summer. Why? Because they are itching to show off their new autumn styles. Spot the slaves to fashion sweating profusely outside the shows in such unsuitably toasty outfits as this season’s Chanel flat toe-capped boots, Aquascutum’s navy coat with military frogging and – for those who can’t wait for ski season – Jean Paul Gaultier’s Kelly muff for Hermès. Amuse yourself spotting trendtastic folk around London and playing The Times’s new game, Buzztrend Bingo.

–– For Balenciaga’s futuristic, Lego-look heels, add 10 points, 15 if the wearer has her heel stuck in a grating, 20 if he is a transvestite.
–– For Prada’s orange teddy bear coat, add 15 points.
–– For Giles Deacon’s cartoonishly large scarf add 5 points, 10 if wearers can’t see where they are going.
–– For the Smythson Nancy bag, add 5 points.
–– For jodhpurs add 5 points, 10 if the wearer arrives at the shows on horseback.
–– For spotting anyone wearing all of the above, instant win.

Because you need it

2007-09-20T08:17:00.003-07:00

Because you need it

This may come as a shock to blokes, but much of the effort women put into their appearance is not for their benefit at all: it’s to impress other women. Nowhere is this more apparent than on the school run. Despite 40 years of so-called equality, there are still relatively few men at the school gate; and yet grooming standards are frighteningly high.

It’s all about one-upwomanship: who can look best, against considerable odds. And it can get bitchier than a spat between Julian Clary and Graham Norton over who sits next to David Furnish at the Alexis Carrington Memorial Ball. “Oh, you look tired this morning. Is everything OK?” is rarely an expression of genuine concern; it’s code for, “Hooray, someone who looks rougher than me.”

One of the principal problems associated with early starts is creasing. This never happened when I was young; now, every crease in my pillow is imprinted on my cheek. I am told that 400-thread Frette pillowcases can soften the damage, but since they cost more than a car and I am not married to Elton John, they’re not an option.

What is an option is Clarins Instant Smooth Perfecting Touch (￡21). It has a weird texture, but if you pat it over your wrinkles, it miraculously smooths them over (like Polyfilla). It is also mercifully oil-free, so if you, like me, are prone to rise and shine, it will help remove unsightly sheen.

In contravention of absolutely everything, I drive my kids to school. The red traffic light is a school-run mum’s best friend, and I keep a small but effective kit in the car. Step one: a lightweight under-eye concealer. A face that’s half-asleep doesn’t respond well to serious coverage, so Chanel’s new Eclat Lumière highlighter is perfect (￡21). Dot it around the eyes and it just dulls the depth of the shadows without making you look like a waxwork. Put some on your eyelids too: it’ll tone down any redness.

At the next set of lights, add a healthy flush with Smashbox’s O-Glow (￡13.50). This clear gel (newly arrived from America) turns the shade of your natural blush when applied to cheeks. Lippy-wise, I love Laura Mercier’s Lip Stain in Scarlet (￡16); for shyer mornings, try Stila’s Long Wear Lip Colour in Exquisite (￡13), a forgiving shade of pinky plum.

Finally, a dash of mascara. MAC’s new Plush Lash (￡13.50) has a large, easy-to-use V-shaped brush which deploys colour and volume in seconds. So at least everyone will be looking at your fabulous lashes – and not at the fact that your child is, tragically, still wearing its pyjama bottoms.

The Spa at Brown’s Hotel, London

2007-09-20T08:17:00.001-07:00

The Spa at Brown’s Hotel, London

USP: Luxury pampering in one of the capital’s oldest and most historic hotels - Alexander Graham Bell made the world’s first phone call and Rudyard Kipling wrote The Jungle Book here. Founded in 1837, this most establishment of Mayfair institutions reopened in December 2005 having been given a dramatic ￡24 million makeover by new owner Sir Rocco Forte. The spa – small but decidedly modern - is one of the many additions brought in as part of the ambitious refurbishment, carried out by Rocco’s sister, the hotelier Olga Polizzi.

Despite comprising just three treatment rooms (there are no wet room facilities), the spa offers hotel guests and non-guests alike all manner of treatments, from Reiki and Thai massage to facials and head to toe “spa indulgencies” for both sexes. Particularly recommended are the seasonal pedicures, which change every few months and make use of largely natural products such as fresh fruit, vegetables and nut.

AMBIENCE: As in many posh London hotels, the spa is located next to the gym in the hotel’s basement well away from the bustle and business of the main lobby. The space was pristine when I visited and has a serene and well-cared-for vibe – not always the case in basement spas which can sometimes seem like an unkempt afterthought. Whether this was because there were no other guests in sight on the morning I visited I could not say, but certainly the spa’s compact size lends itself to a sense of tranquillity that can be missing in bigger spas with a larger number of guests passing through the doors.

White walls, dimmed lighting and scented candles contribute to the sleek minimalist effect – a world away from the heavy wooden fixtures, chandeliers and grandeur of upstairs. A welcoming smell of honey and apple greeted my arrival at the tiny reception, while the usual inoffensive mood music played at just the right volume; ie. not so loud as to be intrusive should you wish to nod off during your treatment. Therapy rooms maintain the distinctly low-key theme – each has its own shower and a small changing area, but there are few other distractions aside from a discreet corner where the therapist placed her products.

EXPERIENCE: I opted for the seasonal apple and pumpkin pedicure – described as warming and soothing for the feet in autumn. After filling out a few basic medical details on a form, I was shown into the treatment room and asked to change while the therapist left to prepare the Apple Martini that accompanies the treatment (guests who are teetotal or more health-conscious than me can instead sip a freshly pressed apple juice).

Martini in hand, the treatment began with a friendly and chatty South African therapist, Shareen, shaping my toenails and buffing my rather dry and sorry-looking feet while I lay on a heated bed. My legs were saturated in an orange gooey substance that was, I was assured, fresh apple and pumpkin sauce. Made that morning in Brown’s own kitchens by the hotel’s chefs, the mixture consisted of English Cox apples mashed up with pumpkin, and although it looked less than pretty, the mush soothed my tired pins seconds after it was rubbed in. The food theme continued as crushed pumpkin seeds and brown sugar were used to exfoliate, with the vitamin and mineral content in the seeds said to be nourishing to the skin while their high protein levels are believed to combat the effects of ageing. The massage that followed was suitably invigorating, although my legs did look as though they had been covered in (very healthy) baby food.

A second massage – carried out after my feet were soaked in warm vanilla-milk – dealt admirably with a minor ache I have recently had in my heel, and the skin on the underside of my feet did feel noticeably softer and smoother after the application of a paraffin foot wrap (This was, essentially, some hot wax contained in a plastic bag that was wrapped around my feet.) Layers of bright glossy polish were applied to my nails, which were then covered in a quick-dry spray and cling-film to stop them smudging when I put on my ballet pumps, although wearing flip-flops post-treatment would have been the better option, I was advised.

FOOD: Peckish spa-goers can splash out at The Grill, London’s first ever hotel restaurant, where recommended dishes on the menu include Potted Morecombe Bay Shrimps, Dressed Dorset King Crab and Roasted Rib of Scottish Beef straight from the carving trolley. Lighter, more calorie-conscious options are few, but then this is very much a grand and historic restaurant boasting big signature dishes rather than a footnote to complement the spa. Eat here and you will likely be greeted by one of the capital’s best-known restaurant managers - Angelo Maresca, formerly maitre d’ at the Savoy Grill. In keeping with the rest of the hotel, prices are not exactly on the low side, although the restaurant also offers a set lunch and pre-theatre dinner menu at ￡25 for two courses and ￡30 for three courses. Meat and fish are sourced from the UK, France and Netherlands.

IN CROWD: The spa is used by both guests and non-guests alike, including Saudi royalty, rich expats and business types looking for a break in between power lunches. The therapist tells me that Sacha Baron Cohen and his fiancée Isla Fisher are among the celebrities that have visited in recent times.

WALLET WATCH: The 90-minute Apple and Pumpkin pedicure costs ￡85, with treatments ranging from ￡55 for a half-an-hour booster facial to ￡120 for a 90-minute Thai massage and ￡430 for a six-hour “Red Carpet” treatment that promises head to toe pampering. Expectant mothers are encouraged to try out the spa’s range of maternity treatments which range from ￡45 to ￡95. The hotel has 117 rooms, 19 of which are suites. Rates for a Classic Queen room are ￡310 per night while the priciest and most lavish suites – including the Kipling suite where the author wrote The Jungle Book – can be booked for ￡2,700 per night.

What’s in your bag?

2007-09-20T08:16:00.005-07:00

What’s in your bag?

VICTORIA BECKHAM

My favourite is my Hermès Kelly bag, in which I always carry my DVB sunglasses, my BlackBerry, a small make-up bag with a few essentials, baby wipes, some toys for the boys when they’re out and about and a spare nappy for Cruz.

Kelly bag, ￡3,460, by Hermès. Sunglasses, ￡135, by DVB, from www.coggles.com. BlackBerry 8800, free to ￡128; www.vodafone.co.uk

Multimedia
Fashion slideshow: It's in the bag
Fashion slideshow: Release the clutch

SAVANNAH MILLER

I love Luella’s bags – they are beautifully made and you don’t see them everywhere. Inside is my BlackBerry, which has changed my life; Ruby & Millie Face Gloss, which gives a natural glow and stops you looking like a dog’s dinner; Airborne Formula, a fizzy vitamin thing that is amazing for avoiding bugs on planes; Oyster card; pictures of my family; and a Moleskine sketchbook.

Joni bag, ￡1,795, by Luella. Face Gloss, ￡12, by Ruby & Millie, from Boots. Sketchbook, ￡12.50, by Moleskine, from www.mojolondon.co.uk

NIGELLA LAWSON

I feel rather antilabel about handbags these days – they’re all a little too Wagtastic. I’m using an anonymous suede bag by Fratelli Rossetti. Inside is a Givenchy powder compact in Happy Sun, a Letts Ladydate diary, a tube of Colman’s English mustard, a mini supply of Maldon salt, a mini bottle of Tabasco, my BlackBerry and a digital camera for taking pictures of everything I eat.Bag, ￡300, by Fratelli Rossetti; 020 7259 6397. Prisme Again! Visage in Happy Sun, ￡26.50, by Givenchy

ROKSANDA ILINCIC

My bag is a Chanel 2.55 that was a present from my husband three years ago. I still haven’t found anything that could replace it. Inside are my two favourite lipsticks, Amplified Orange by Mac and a shocking-pink YSL; my LG Shine mobile, which doubles as a mirror; Shu Uemura Depsea Water in Rose and Shu Uemura mascara; YSL vintage sunglasses; Flavigny Pastilles, preferably violet flavour; and my Eiffel Tower gold pen, found when tourist shopping in Paris.

2.55 satin handbag, ￡1,300, by Chanel. Depsea Water, ￡14, and mascara, ￡17, by Shu Uemura

TARA PALMER-TOMKINSON

My favourite bag is the biggest classic Chanel, so I can carry a change of clothes (currently gold lamé shorts and a Castelbajac T-shirt) and my passport, in its Matthew Williamson for Smythson case. Also inside are Jo Malone grapefruit perfume, Darphin eye serum, YSL Touche Eclat, Chanel wallet and Michael Kors sunglasses.

Tote, ￡1,500, by Chanel. Notebook, from a selection, by Matthew Williamson for Smythson; 020 7629 8558. Sunglasses, ￡140, by Michael Kors

COLEEN McLOUGHLIN

I’m using a classic black leather Chanel bag. I use the same routine when it comes to packing it and follow it religiously: diary, camera (you never know when you will need one), St Tropez Bronzer, Nars blusher, Pout lip plump, YSL mascara, my own Coleen X perfume, green Wrigley’s Extra, credit cards and money in case I need to take a taxi.

2.55 leather bag, from ￡1,295, by Chanel. Coleen X, ￡12, from Selfridges

BAY GARNETT

It’s a fake lizard-skin bag from Portobello market or a Louis Vuitton, which is seriously luxe – it’s all about the mood I’m in. In it, I have my black Ray-Bans, Vaishaly moisturiser, iPod, Nokia phone and a Louis Vuitton wallet.

Mahina bag, ￡1,081, and wallet, ￡350, by Louis Vuitton. Day Moisturiser, ￡45, by Vaishaly; www.vaishaly.com

ANGELA HARTNETT

The bag I love is by Marc by Marc Jacobs. I start the week saying I’m going to keep it tidy, but by the end of the week it is full of rubbish. At the moment, there is my phone, a wallet for credit cards, Chanel No 19 perfume, Cosa Nostra by John Dickie, a toothbrush, mints and my tasting spoon.

Aline leather tote, ￡335, by Marc by Marc Jacobs, from Net-a-porter.com. Duemila spoon, ￡4, from www.divertimenti.co.uk.

Scents of self

2007-09-20T08:16:00.003-07:00

Scents of self

Shakespeare’s description of Cleopatra’s barge would be as nothing without her lavish sails, “so perfumed that/The winds were lovesick with them”. Ostensibly, this is literature’s consummate example of a signature scent in operation: one breath, and empires are imperilled, heroes felled. And yet, why would so coruscating a seductress equip her armoury with merely one weapon? Surely the old asp-embracer would have cultivated one aroma for her sails, another for her public and a still more devastating concoction for her most intimate engagements.

It is a strategy that 21st-century womanhood will recognise. For, according to the industry’s best guesstimates, women deploy an average of seven fragrances, veiling themselves in innocence or debauchery according to whim. Out goes the notion of slavish fidelity to a signature scent; in comes the beguiling promiscuity of a perfume wardrobe.

The perfume wardrobe may be a sign of sluttishness or connoisseurship: of the duty-free dabbler or the addict who eschews a single fix for multiple mainlining. Moreover, as with the armoire proper, a fragrance wardrobe must be equipped for all eventualities. Just as one would not sport an Aquascutum leather corset to meet one’s in-laws, so Caron’s Tabac Blond may be too civetous for tea on the lawn.

Mood, of course, is everything. While YSL’s bracing Rive Gauche and Guerlain’s Chamade can both lay claim to being aldehydic (sparkling) florals, the former is all scarlet lips and scraped- back hair, the latter as tender as the right sort of kiss. Mood may also be a euphemism for age. As it is deemed tasteless to wear diamonds before 30, so one may mature into the creations of greats such as Edmond “Diorella” Roudnitska. A friend confides: “Should I need to feel 18 again, I wear Calyx, but I couldn’t do Ana?s Ana?s – too gymslip by far.”

Multiple contingencies have a bearing on what aroma one might exude: the hour, the season, one’s immediate objectives. A woman who wants to smell uncontroversial by day (the elegantly herbaceous Acqua di Parma) may prefer to kick up a storm after dark (Dior’s sweaty-chested Eau Sauvage). An opulent oriental in the style of Samsara might feel perfect for December, but be traded for a lighter floriental come June (try Fendi’s new Palazzo – it’s bottled slink). A woman’s f***-you fragrance will differ from her f***-me perfume, for which a “knicker scent” such as Westwood’s Boudoir, Piguet’s gussety Bandit or Lutens’s resplendently obscene Ambre Sultan might artfully be deployed.

As a conventional wardrobe may encompass Prada and Primark, so the perfume wardrobe may embrace both up- and mass market. A fashion acquaintance wears the orris-infused Tiempe Passate by Antonia’s Flowers for “deep and meaningful encounters. But if I want to pull someone obvious, I’ll slap on some Paris Hilton – an olfactory in-joke,” she confesses. Moreover, perfume, like clothing, can serve as emotional armour. Chanel No 5 is such a morale-booster that when a beloved friend died at a tragically young age, my mother dispatched a flacon to his widow. At the funeral, it proved a bulwark to us both: I will never forget the vivacity of its aldehydes holding us together against the scent of dug earth.

My own magnificent seven is immediately apparent. I favour a chosen genre: mossy, animal, leather chypres. But I also relish a couple of glacially sophisticated florals, and there must always be room for some new obsession. That’s the wonderful thing about a perfume wardrobe: not only does it offer infinite sensuous satisfaction; it is also provokingly character-revealing. For some, it will record consistency; for others – myself not least – a rapturous schizophrenia.

Spritzophrenia - Hannah's seven selves

1. Caron Coup de Fouet, ￡49 for 50ml - A crack of the whip/fist of mace for when one must take on the world.

2. Guerlain Derby, ￡95 for 125ml - My ultimate, most revered leather chypre. Intimate, sensual a second skin.

3. Gres Cabochard, ￡46 for 100ml - A softer, warmer, less castrating leather for rare feminine moments.

4. The Knize Ten, ￡47.50 for 50ml - Ultra-ballsy leather, worn by Dietrich and in the 1970s gay S&M circles.

5. Serge Lutens Chene, ￡50 for 50ml - An oak of almost metallic purity: natural yet cerebral, austere yet lacerating.

6. Guerlain Apres l'Ondee, ￡60 for 100ml - My elemental, orris-rich other self; worn entirely for my own satisfaction.

7. Hermes Hiris, ￡33 for 50ml - An impeccably feminine floral that acts as male catnip.

Fears over eating disorders prompt catwalk ban on younger models

2007-09-20T08:16:00.001-07:00

Fears over eating disorders prompt catwalk ban on younger models

Designers preparing to reveal their latest collections at this month’s London Fashion Week have been made to sign contracts prohibiting the use of models who are younger than 16.

Those aged 14 and 15 have been banned from the catwalks of the event for the first time. The move pre-empts the final report of the Model Health Inquiry, which will be published on Friday, the day before Fashion Week starts.

It comes after a year of controversy surrounding the fashion industry’s use of super-thin women to advertise clothes, and the deaths of three “size zero” models from South America. The contract that designers have been asked to sign by the British Fashion Council, which runs Fashion Week, also demands a zero-tolerance attitude towards illegal substances and smoking backstage. It requires that any evidence of drug-taking be reported to the police.

The fashion council has written to producers and casting agencies informing them of the policy and insisting that they confirm their support of it, Simon Ward, the head of operations at Fashion Week, said. He added: “The whole model health issue has been around really for the past 12 months. Now we have a report coming out, it seemed right to match that in writing with the contract.”

The inquiry, established by the fashion council and led by Baroness Kingsmill, said that teenagers of 14 and 15 were particularly at risk of developing eating disorders, and called for the practice to end. It also expressed concern that “it is profoundly inappropriate that girls under 16, under the age of consent, should be portrayed as adult women”.

The interim report attracted criticism for deciding against recommending a ban on models below a certain body mass index, which was introduced at Madrid Fashion Week. The panel said it felt that pre-show “weigh-ins” for models would be demeaning.

Mr Ward said that there would be no minimum weight restriction at Fashion Week, but added that the fashion council would consider carefully any new recommendations that arose in the Model Health Inquiry’s final report. “It is inappropriate to go charging ahead one way or another until we see what is in the report,” he said. “Where there is hard and fast stuff \ which can be delivered, we have acted.”

Another proposal that is likely to feature in the final report is for a union for models, an idea favoured by Erin O’Connor, a panel member and model. In particular, models should be given health checks and screening for eating disorders, the report will say, although campaigners against eating disorders have criticised the inquiry for failing to address the impact that the fashion industry has on the public.

Some of those involved with Fashion Week have expressed frustration with the recommendations. Laurie Kuhrt, chairman of the Association of Model Agents, described the idea of a union as “quite unnecessary”. He told The Sunday Times: “What these people don’t realise is that agents look after models as if they were their mum or dad.”

Mr Kuhrt added that his association had first suggested a voluntary ban on models under the age of 16 at Fashion Week, but said that agents should still be permitted to encourage younger teenagers to work on portfolios of photographs outside of school term-time.

Mr Kuhrt attacked what he described as a relentless campaign to vilify models and accuse them of being anorexic. He said: “What some people need to realise is that some of God’s children are born very tall and very thin. They are scouted for throughout the world. It is not as if we get people together and starve them to death.”

Coolhunter

2007-09-20T08:15:00.004-07:00

Coolhunter

I don’t like vast department stores. I don’t like supermarkets either. Maybe it’s my age, but I find them overwhelming. A shopping expert suggested to me recently that the issue was choice – ie, too much of it. This has never been truer than at Selfridges on Oxford Street, where, after 30 minutes, I feel as though I’m on a Tokyo subway station. The difference is, of course, that in Selfridges I can read the signage, but readers, I simply lose the will to.

Selfridges, though, is clever. In fact, it might be the cleverest department store in Britain, nay the universe. It is always coming up with newer, more compelling ways to attract customers. Finding them is not difficult in London at present because there’s a great deal of sterling sloshing about.

Selfridges has stepped up to the luxury customer plate in a big and prescient fashion by opening its “Wonder Room”, a vast, airy, glass-fronted space on the west corner of the store. The Wonder Room resembles an extremely high-class bazaar, where tony brands such as Tiffany, Bulgari, H. Stern and Chanel Fine Jewellery have opened their own intimate boutiques. At its centre is a paean to the real money-maker, “The Watch”, with brands such as Breitling and Bathys. Rolex has its own boutique. Natch.

As if the idea of inviting all of these luxury brands into a department store setting was not enough (the equivalent of the Ivy selling burgers and fast food at Waitrose – actually not a bad idea), Selfridges has had the audacity to create a “concept store” which sells stylish but inexpensive items within the Wonder Room. So, once you’ve finished buying your ￡774,000 necklace from H. Stern, you can wander over and pick up a rather fabulous ￡8 string-doll keyring or a Japanese rubber toy for ￡12.95. There’s also a sunglasses wall (1,300 pairs at last count).

The brains behind this brand democracy is creative director Alannah Weston, who says her mission was to create a non-threatening shopping environment. “We wanted people to feel comfortable, not to be put off by the ultra-luxury brands. They should be able to shop without feeling intimidated.” I think she’s pulled it off beautifully. When was the last time you pressed your nose to the counter and ogled a massive diamond ring, felt free to pick up a Hermès bag (also check out the Hermès saddle, below, on show) or tried on a Rolex with impunity?

My favourite thing, though, about The Wonder Room is the sight of the biker goth rock jeweller Chrome Hearts situated between Hermès and Cartier. “They have brought in some amazing customers,” confides Weston. No word yet on whether there’ll be a bike stand for Harleys outside.

How to get dressed

2007-09-20T08:15:00.003-07:00

How to get dressed

Fashion, as some people never tire of pointing out, isn’t rocket science. Although now I think of it, a very clever nuclear physicist once pointed out on the radio that as science specialisms go, rocket science isn’t that complicated. So perhaps fashion is the rocket science of the design world.

Or was, because this winter, fashion is a bit complicated. Presumably this is why the experts are all contradicting one another. It’s vamp. It’s preppie. It’s dark. It’s neon. It’s midi. It’s mini. It’s definitely, definitely minimalist – although American Vogue’s September issue has idiosyncratically devoted two pages to brooches. Spooky.

If you think about the women who perennially feature in those best dressed and most stylish lists, they’re generally the ones who seem to float effortlessly above the fashion fray and yet somehow look fashionable and of the moment at the same time. This they do not by ignoring trends, but by furiously adapting them.

If you haven’t already discovered, take it from me, this isn’t quite as easy as it might appear. Effortlessness rarely is. The trick is to find what you feel comfortable in, stick with it, while somehow avoiding that deep dark comfort zone otherwise known as a rut. This is, as it turns out, a particularly good season to act out this wisdom, because once you delve a couple of centimetres below the hype, there is a handful of solid classics that most of us would feel happy in, especially in their updated incarnations.

Take the blazer – really, someone should have come up with a new, hot name for this, since the current once makes it sound like something you’d find in a golf club. However, reconfigured at Balenciaga (tight, single-breasted, curvy and in Liquorice Allsorts colours), they’re more like something you’d find in a pony club, as imagined by Mert and Marcus. Not cheap, obviously, and almost sold out, but an excellent template when you begin your search through the scores of jackets that are filtering into the shops.

Cardigans are another staple with most of us – and a particularly cosy rut to fall into. This season’s are V-neck, oversized and great belted over trousers and skirts, or chunky and worn like coats over slouchy silk dresses. The best are from Prada – in soft but vibrant cashmeres, with elbow patches – Gap and Topshop. Also worth checking out is Peacock’s black, loose-stitch Burberry – ahem – tribute, with leatherette straps.

The bomber jacket has had an update – in leather and patent (Miu Miu’s are the gold standard), it will make even a classic pair of trousers and a white shirt look more modern. Talking of trousers, you know by now that the newest are wide-legged and higher-waisted. Shirts are back, too – either crisp white and with masculine details or silky. Wear them with chunky bangles and a clunky half industrial, half home-made-looking Marni necklace. Or one of the zillions of copies, such as French Connection’s.

Ballet shoes are back as well, despite dire predictions of their death. This time they’re embellished – with chains, buckles, studs, plastic scraps – and they look the fresher for it.

Granted, these are all the kind of items that the naturally stylish have already acquired for their wardrobes. The rest of us have to apply a little science.

The homecoming queen

2007-09-20T08:15:00.001-07:00

The homecoming queen

Here’s Luella Bartley – adorable, marmalade-haired baby called Ned on her hip, minions sticking customised Luella badges round the 18th-century architrave of the door to her new Mayfair shop – saying she would have been absolutely hopeless at interviewing people back in the days before she became a designer and was working as a journalist. “Way too obsessed with being cool and what other people thought of me,” she shrugs.

Now she tells me. Nine years ago, she came to work with me in the fashion department at Vogue. The one time she was dispatched to get a quote from anyone – her friend Kate Moss, whom she was charged with asking whether or not trainers had lost their cool status – she came back with just the one word. No.

At the time, Luella also omitted to say that she’d been fired from the Evening Standard for orchestrating a shoot that was meant to celebrate glamour, but somehow came out grunge – “even though,” as she points out, still sounding mystified, “the models were in Chanel and the shoot cost a fortune”. She was reinstated a day later because, really, who could sack someone that entertaining? She was so nice, so scrub-faced, so outdoorsy that, at the time, I assumed she must represent a peculiarly subversive strain of cool. She didn’t. She was just a girl who’d dropped out of Saint Martins (because it was “terrifyingly hip” and she’d been offered a job). She also had cool friends, among them Katie Grand, who went on to launch Pop magazine and is now creative director at Mulberry; Giles Deacon, then Grand’s boyfriend, now one of London’s most talked-about designers; Katie Hillier, the accessories designer; Justine Frischmann, front woman of now-defunct band Elastica; and James Moores, who was, for a long time, Luella’s boyfriend – although, in the press, he usually went by the sobriquet of Heir to the Littlewoods Fortune.

Plus she was full of ideas. I’m still not convinced she wasn’t making it up when she wrote that Camilla Parker Bowles’s tweeds and early Lady Di pie-crust collars were groovy again, but it was an infectious fantasy. Writing as she did about the Sloane revival before it came to pass proved prescient, if only because, as one of the designers that fashion editors look to for pointers on what’s cool, she’s helped revived it – or a tongue-in-chic version of it.

So there she was, pottering into Vogue from the Soho flat she shared with Grand, seamlessly mining street trends, rock music and her horse obsession – a classic trinity, in its way, of all that the British hold dear – when she had her best idea, which was to jack in journalism and, with encouragement from Grand and financial backing from Moores, set up her own label. “I realised it was going to be more complicated than I’d thought when a fabric supplier asked whether I wanted 200 or 400 metres and I thought, ‘20?’” she says. “I think James only put up the money because he saw it as a way of paying me not to go to Vogue, which meant I could spend more time going to Ireland with him.”

The first collection, poetically entitled Daddy, I Want a Pony, ended up being “just shirts and shirt dresses, because shirting was all I could get hold of. I remember showing it to Hamish Bowles at American Vogue and thinking, ‘This is peculiar.’”

But soon – to the astonishment of many – she was producing proper collections, with names such as Who Were The Clash?, which she showed in a flat belonging to the bass guitarist of Pulp. Kate Moss came to the second show and modelled in the third, and the clothes rapidly became the perfect (and perfectly marketable, especially in the US) synthesis of street urchin and English rose: drainpipes, punky sequins, school blazers, miniskirts, bovver boots and always some kind of cheeky take on the hunt-ball dress (usually sliced in half and fluorescent).

Eight years later, she is one of the best-known British designers in the States, thanks largely to a collaboration last year with Target – that leviathan of low-priced chain stores – with whom she produced a diffusion collection that ended up being advertised on national television in the breaks between the Oscars. She is also one of the only British designers to have a successful bag collection in the US. Bartley’s first foray was the Gisele – huge, with numerous straps and lashings of attitude, which she designed with her friend Stuart Vevers (now at Loewe) for Mulberry back in 2002. It acquired its name when the eponymous Brazilian supermodel sauntered off with one on each arm at the end of one of Bartley’s shows. It was the first It-bag not to emanate from one of the mega fashion houses and sales that season went from 1,000 to 30,000.

Bartley and her husband, fashion photographer David Sims, and their children Kip and Stevie moved last year to a 17th-century farmhouse set in 15 acres near Polzeath in Cornwall, where Sims surfs when he’s not shooting for Calvin Klein, Pepsi, Gap, Nike, Jil Sander or Louis Vuitton. It’s here that she works on the collection, pings e-mails back and forth to her team in east London and goes riding every day. Yes, she did get her pony.

It all sounds fantastically nonchalant, which is as it should be when you’re ploughing a furrow as a Cool Brit. There has been a degree of serendipity in everything she’s done – from being plucked from Saint Martins while still a student to moving her first show from London to New York, which turned out to be pivotal, although she’s back in London for this season to open her first shop. The fact that she was able to turn her adventure into a collaborative effort with friends (Grand styled the show and helped with suggestions for the collection, Vevers worked on the Gisele bag, Katie Hillier designed the accessories) made it seem even more of a lark. But she is remarkably clear sighted, down to knowing exactly what the essence is of the Luella brand. “English cool with English heritage,” she says. Now 33, she is, by her own analysis, good at seizing the day.

Yet after the huge hit with the Gisele, things got rocky. The prices were too high for a youthful label, too much of the business was concentrated in the US, other companies piled into the It-bag market, and she and Moores split up, although they remain amicable. Bartley called in accountants to put the business on a more formal footing and did some serious strategising. “The business is smaller than it was immediately after the Gisele bag, when it was turning over ￡8 million a year, but it’s on a surer footing.” There’s a sunglasses licence and a cosmetics range in the pipeline. “I want the collection to be eclectic, so that someone can come in to the shop and buy a beautiful suit or an evening dress, or a T-shirt or just a badge, if they want,” she says.

The shop is a gem and fitted out with classic Savile Row-style display units, thrift-shop buys, lovingly defaced portraits of Queen Victoria, and hand-painted steeds rearing up through the Colefax and Fowler wallpaper. But I think it’s Bartley’s life, rather than any collection, that gives her most satisfaction right now. “I’m so proud of what we’ve created in Cornwall. I didn’t grow up with any of that.”

Her parents split up when she was a toddler. Bartley lived with her mother, a secretary, in a two-up, two-down in Stratford-upon-Avon and attended the local school. “We weren’t fighting poverty, but it wasn’t glamorous in any way. I was incredibly boring and average as a teenager. It was only when I had children that I stopped obsessing about being cool and things fell into place.”

That alone seems worth celebrating and, indeed, she wants the shop opening to be a big street party. It just so happens that the street has Claridge’s on it. How very Luella.

High art?

2007-09-20T08:14:00.004-07:00

High art?

Van Gogh once painted a pair of old muddy boots, and Andy Warhol drew so many shoes for magazine advertisements that some believe he was a foot fetishist. In 1936, the Swiss surrealist Meret Oppenheim made a sculpture out of a pair of white high heels on a plate, soles uppermost, trussed up like an oven--ready fowl. She was an artist obsessed with sex, and said of her creation: “It evokes for me the association of thighs squeezed together in pleasure.”

There’s a long tradition of footwear in works of art, but can shoes ever be works of art in their own right? They are, after all, a form of sculpture, though, strictly speaking, anything functional isn’t art, but craft. Then again, there is nothing functional about Roger Vivier’s latest creation, Enr?leur, a pair of shoes so extreme ? the heels are 12cm high ? that most women would find it a challenge to stand up, let alone walk, in them.

Essentially, the work consists of a black satin structure with diamanté, crystal chips and tulle applied in patterns both static and dynamic. The dramatic tonal contrasts between black and white are expertly judged. Critics love a simile, and the toe of Enr?leur reminds me of a pebble beach with seaweed sprouting between the stones. I could also compare it to a fireworks display, or the view from the Starship Enterprise nearing the Crab Nebula.

Stylistically, Enr?leur is difficult to place. Its clean lines and sense of balance suggest neoclassicism, though the promiscuous ornamentation, especially the dangly bits, is more closely allied with baroque. What can be said without fear of contradiction, however, is that the shoes aren’t remotely modernist, radical or avant-garde. There’s no attempt to reshape or redefine the genre, no desire to shock the bourgeoisie, no intention of being nominated for, let alone winning, the Turner prize. For that, the toes would have to be cut off (remember the great Ungaro?), the soles fitted with miniature pogo sticks or the foot draped with a pair of soiled knickers.

Not that Vivier has always been so traditional. In his preferred medium, he was as groundbreaking as Picasso. In the 1950s, he invented stilettos, and in the 1960s, he was responsible for those shiny black vinyl thigh boots that looked ridiculous on everybody except Jane Fonda.

There’s still no doubt about the artistic status of the shoes, however, especially when they cost the same price as a not-bad Old Master drawing. So the only question remaining for the art critic is this: where does the Enr?leur fit into Vivier’s oeuvre?

That’s a difficult question, since the poor man died in 1998, and his name is now being used by others. This is a work created so late in his career that it belongs firmly in his posthumous period.

Middle way

2007-09-20T08:14:00.003-07:00

Middle way

The “midi” is autumn’s most difficult proportion: get the new length right and you’ll look fabulously on trend and elegant; get it wrong and it’s a first-class ticket to Frumpsville. Here’s how to work it.

— Big, voluminous shapes and midi lengths are hard to pull off. The length works best with clothes that are fitted to the body, so go for tailored skirts or stretchy dresses in clingy fabric.

— Many designers showed midi lengths with ankle boots on the catwalk. This combination is fine if you have long, supermodel limbs, but it will make everyone else appear stunted.

— Never wear a midi-dress or midi-skirt with flat shoes, as you will look squat. Instead, choose elegant high heels that elongate the leg. Avoid ankle straps, as they break the line of the leg and have a shortening effect.

— A high-waisted midi-skirt stretches the proportions and creates a longer, more elegant look.

— Wear midi-skirts with short jackets or fitted tops that emphasise the waist. Avoid anything long and oversized.

Pull your socks up

2007-09-20T08:14:00.001-07:00

Pull your socks up

I met Thea last summer; she was wearing a long vintage Snoopy T-shirt, knee-high stripy socks and a pair of Converse high-tops. There was so much going on there: it was antisexy, but incredibly sexy; she looked like a tomboy with a cool, fashionable edge. I tried and tried not to rip off her look, but it was futile. From then on, I had to have more socks in my life.

It has not been an easy journey. A friend and I were on holiday recently, and I was stressing over the prudence of a grown-up woman in peep-toe platforms, over-the-knee socks and short shorts. We had a concerted, rosé–fuelled mull over the aesthetic merits of socks, which are proving to be an extremely hard trend for any fashion-lover to ignore this season.

Were we too old, too lacking in edge or fashion sass to have socks appeal? Did they look silly, or was this impulse a deserved appreciation of a much-neglected accessory? Then, her boyfriend came charging in, grumpy and urging us to get a bloody move on – until he saw them. “Wow, those look wicked on you, those socks,” he said. “I love a nice sock on a woman.”

That sealed it for me, old tart that I am.

Socks certainly get the nod of approval from men, whether sitting below the knee, with their obvious schoolgirl connotations, or above the knee – a bit Helmut Newton, Guy Bourdin or Kate Moss in Agent P mode. But then, men react positively to nylon lace and PVC basques from Ann Summers – so they aren’t the best arbiters of female style.

Perhaps that is why, despite growing rather fond of socks, I’ve been nervous of wearing them in London, where the critical eye of every woman in town is dying to shred you. Possible reactions being: “Who does she think she is – a glamour model?” and: “My God, she actually thinks she’s got the legs to pull off that look,” and: “Mutton and lamb, or what?”

So, I’ve been wearing socks in secret for the past year. I’m no brave fashion forward, not like stylists such as Katie Grand and Lucy Ewing, who have been rocking a good sock for years. Even though I liked the cut of a sock’s jib, I was terrified of looking nerdy, try-hard or porky. But wherever I could, I gave socks a whirl, largely overseas, where nobody knew me. I was in Brazil earlier this year, at a hiking spa, and sported some hard-core knee-high sports socks with my Adidas by Stella McCartney running shorts.

There’s phenomenal variety out there: you need never look like a crowd-follower if you choose from the fabulous ranges by Pantherella, Burlington, Jonathan Aston, Falke, Eley Kishimoto, Calvin Klein and Marni, all of which are doing far tastier things than Prada. The latter’s socks are impossible to wear unless they are coordinated with the entire Prada look – particularly the shoes. Far worse, they are made to fit calves as wide as my arms; on calves as wide as my calves, they strain and stretch and are good only for showcasing knee fat (the micro-muffin-top of excess flesh that flows over the top of a pair of too-tight knee-highs).

But then something happened that persuaded me socks in the city were all right: I spotted a girl on the Tube wearing a simple – no, boring – shift dress and pumps. But they were totally sexed up with a pair of knee-high socks. Excellent look, I thought, staring enviously at her. It was time to go public. I had to try on a lot of socks before I got the look going, but even with flats, the knee-highs-with-shift thing looks the business. You can wear the craziest patterns and not look a twit. Really.

Thea, my friend from last summer, says socks have three things going for them that a lot of fashion does not: “They are not uncomfortable, they are not cold and they are not expensive.” She tells me a story about when she was living in Ibiza. It was November, and she was kicking around, feeling a bit depressed because everyone had gone home. “Then, this big black car pulls up.” She makes a buzzing noise of an expensive electric window being lowered. “I’m, like, ‘All right, Jade.’ She’s sitting there, just back from New York, wearing all that season’s new stuff – a beautiful red Marc coat, if I remember right. ‘I like your coat,’ I say. And she just nods in that snooty way she can and goes, ‘All right, Thea. Nice socks.’”

HOW TO ROCK A SOCK

To start with, try a black over-the-knee sock under a knee-length dress, and go with the cute peek people get when you sit down.

Then try a lacy or pinstripe sock under a pair of trousers.

Freshen up an old pair of black shoes with socks (ankle, knee- or thigh-length) and just think of them less as socks and more as boots.

There’s a line at which socks and short skirts can become a bit porno-schoolgirl. Even if your boyfriend likes it, it may be worth canvassing the opinion of a female, too.

Bag a chunky sock around the calf – it has an effect similar to a ruched boot.

Try layering them over contrasting-coloured tights.

If your legs are a bit chunky, and you feel self-conscious about them, stick to plain socks in dark colours.

Chunky-knit socks will make your legs look thinner. Jonathan Aston socksare the most fashion-forward, plus they’re British – and cheap.

And if you’re still not convinced, try wearing over-the-knee cashmere socks and nothing else in bed. That’s pretty delicious.

Shape & form

2007-09-20T08:13:00.004-07:00

Shape & form

In many ways, we’ve had it easy for far too long. For seasons, we’ve been swishing about in slinky dresses or flumping around in smocks. Skinny jeans aside, the fashion silhouette has been loose and flowing, with a nod to softness and comfort. I haven’t worn anything seriously tailored for years. Like many women, I haven’t felt the desire for it. But just a couple of weeks ago, on a whim, I dusted down a seasons-old Burberry Prorsum jacket and slipped it on. I checked out my shoulders, which were suddenly sharp and defined. I admired my apparently long and slender arms and thrilled at my nipped-in waist. “Tailoring,” I thought. “Why not?”

Designers have had a similar conversion. The big story for autumn is the death of the juvenile, baby-doll aesthetic (all flounces, frills and abbreviated hemlines) and the return of a strict, more grown-up silhouette. The skirt suit, last touted as a must-have in the 1980s heyday of power dressing, is back on the fashion menu, along with the fitted shift dress, which is darted to create an hourglass look. Proper trousers, either skinny or wide, are also strong wardrobe contenders.

Daywear hasn’t looked so smart for years. But are we ready for this spruce silhouette? What will legs used to the stretchy simplicity of leggings or the casual carelessness of skinny jeans make of trousers lined with silk, complete with a proper waistband? And what about all those women who have spent the past few years happily cocooned in billowing baby-dolls or comfy smocks? Are they really about to reveal themselves in a sharp sheath dress?

Multimedia
Fashion slideshow: Shape and form

I, for one, welcome the return of tailoring, largely because it might put an end to the spectacle of thirtysomethings dressed as preschoolers. But if the vogue for dressing like a child inadvertently revealed a generation unwilling to grow up, it also reflected women’s desire to be playful with their clothes. Fashion should be fun.

So, how have designers looking to revive a sleek, tailored silhouette got around that one? The new structured look is certainly a more serious proposition than a frilly dress, but it is not all dour. Prada, for instance, has a wonderful coat that is tailored like a man’s at the front, but gathered at the back by a pretty little bow placed just below the bottom. The clever mix of deadpan masculinity and sweet femininity makes for a very modern fashion statement.

Tailoring may speak of discipline and rigour, but that doesn’t need to translate as conformity. There is room for interpretation. Capes should appeal to unconventional types. Jil Sander’s linear, almost futuristic designs have real youth and energy. For sirens, the sexuality of a pencil skirt is secure, and for women who have been looking for an alternative to girlie trends, the trouser revival must seem a godsend.

Great tailoring gives you a fabulous shape – which is not necessarily the one you were born with. It defines your silhouette, corrects imperfections and creates the illusion of a better body beneath. Bad tailoring is bland, lumpen, joyless, ageing, unflattering and yawnsomely dull.

So, how do you tell the difference between the beautiful and the boring? Look for pieces that are well cut, with pleasing proportions and considered details. Check out the buttons; scrutinise the lie of the pockets (do they sit in a flattering way or add unwanted bulk?); see what the lining is made of. Then try on your chosen item and take a deep breath. If that dress, pair of trousers or coat transforms you into a dreary drone, not a queen bee, then leave it on the rail. Great tailoring should make you feel as good as it looks

A lot going on up top

2007-09-20T08:13:00.003-07:00

A lot going on up top

ELOISE ANSON

Model and daughter of the late Lord Lichfield. Hat by Philip Treacy

My fascination with hats started when I was a child. I used to walk past Philip Treacy’s shop; I grew up with that shop window and used to fantasise about working there. I must have sent in my CV about 14 times. They had to give in eventually. I can’t explain my obsession. It was just always on my mind.

I was 21 when I started working for Philip. Isabella Blow interviewed me wearing a huge, horned, lace hat, bright red lips and a beautiful corseted outfit by Alexander McQueen, dropping beads all down the corridor from it. On my first day in the shop, I tried on hats. On the second, it was the Queen Mother’s funeral. I was told to wear black from head to toe, and we spent all day watching the bearskins on parade. Before long, Philip asked me to walk Mr Pig, his late Jack Russell.

Putting the hat in Manhattan

2007-09-20T08:13:00.001-07:00

Putting the hat in Manhattan

Trends

— Safari jackets: in shantung silk or cotton, these are a great tailored option to endless little shift dresses.

— Endless little shift dresses: by endless, we mean their inordinate numbers, not their length.

— Curvy blazers: the central statement from Balenciaga last season; now everyone’s doing them.

— Hats: from worrying (nasty straw trilbies cropped up all over the place) to wishful thinking (do those 1960s air-hostess caps at Marc, borrowed from Balenciaga’s collection two seasons ago, mean that he’d like to see a return to the days when cabin crew looked like a Swedish fantasy rather than your mother?). In between were floppy 1970s-style brims which looked cute; turbans, which didn’t; Proenza Schouler’s military constructions, which you wished you had the nerve to wear; and Diane Von Furstenberg’s headscarves, which we’re officially not sure about.

— High-waisted shorts: adorable on the right girl.

— Boleros: not just the Ravel score, which was by far the best thing at Marc Jacobs’s show, but the teeny, cropped at the bust jackets.

— Camel and sulphuric yellow: not an obvious combination, but surprisingly good together.

— Designer umbrellas: first Marc Jacobs did them, now Anna Sui. Hey, it’s not easy cashing in when Donna and Calvin have cornered the market in underwear.

— Designers such as Nanette Lepore and Gwen Stefani coming down the catwalk with their offspring. Isn’t showing us what they created at work enough?

— Ultra blonde hair: admittedly, Agyness Deyn looks fabulous with her new clotted cream-coloured tint, and Julianne Moore’s new blonde bob is quite a look, too. Just don’t tell us that Posh and her new magnolia extensions were the catalyst.

— Ra-ra skirts, stripes, Mischa Barton in the front row, speculation about Posh’s breasts, the to-be-continued mini v maxi, New Look v pencil skirt debate; Betsey Johnson’s obligatory end of show cartwheel.

Details that restore your belief in fashion . . .

— Square heeled, square-toed patent slingbacks at the Marc by Marc Jacobs show. They won’t make you 6ft tall, but your feet will love you.

— The slouch pockets in Donna Karan’s draped silk jersey dresses: a chic touch that adds an air of cool to a grown-up glamour dress (and it’s a good place to stash the BlackBerry and Juicy Tube).

— The price points of many labels on New York’s catwalks – $450 (￡222) for a dress isn’t give-away, but compared with the traditional $1,000-plus (and with the dollar on the floor), it’s value for money.

— On the downside, a lot of shows resemble little more than high street collections. But when they’re good – Milly (sweet dresses); Tory Burch (ultra-glam but effortless fitted dresses, high-waisted coats in lime, navy or white, Park Avenue Princess made affordable); Nanette Lepore (cuts a mean pair of trousers and does a nice line in vintage-looking tops); 3.1 Phillip Lim (197piece collection that serves just about everyone’s needs, with cool patent linen trench coats, and gorgeous draped dresses and ruffled vest tops) – they’re hard to beat.

— The sushi boxes at L’Wren Scott’s presentation in Larry Gagosian’s downtown art gallery. Way to go with fashion shows: 30 guests (including the designer’s beau, Mick Jagger, and the designer’s best client, the bird-limbed actress Ellen Barkin) sitting down to lunch while an admirably concise collection unfolded in front of them. Admittedly, the first few outfits – skinny dark trousers, skin-tight blouses and sweeping floor-length coats looked as if they’d come directly from Scott’s personal wardrobe, though that’s not necessarily a bad thing. But the strappy, fitted black cocktail dresses and teal-coloured siren dresses with their feather or flamenco-ruffle embellishments were flawless. Made in France and Italy – and it showed.

— Manhattan legs: is it because every waitress in this city is a resting actress that so many New York women, from the socialites to the interns, look so great? What do they know that we don’t about the path to toned, blemish-free legs? And do they spray on that shine?

. . . and some that don’t

— Swatted: was it the Boston Tea Party all over again, with a fashion slant? At Ralph Lauren’s ultra-glam 40th anniversary party the mosquitoes seemed to attack only the British. Cue disastrous mottled/diseased effect that played havoc with those trying to work the minidress look

— Spotted: Marc Jacobs, or someone who looked uncannily like him, in the bar of the Mercer Hotel at 9.40pm on Monday, despite the fact that his show was supposed to start at 9. Puts paid to those excuses about ‘‘the clothes not being ready”.

— Out-smarted: Demi Moore gave the paps outside the Mercer restaurant the slip by resorting to the cunning ruse of exiting through a door a few feet from the one they’d gone to sleep by.

— Fashion art: always contentious, but designers can’t resist mixing their last museum trip with business. Carolina Herrera looked to Jeremiah Goodman’s watercolours, Marc Jacobs to Dali and Dada. (Well, it sounds so good in the programme notes.) Alas, surrealism is tricky territory for a designer, there not being obvious windows of opportunity in the average customer’s life for a sequined deep-sea diver’s ankle-length hoodie worn with designer trackie pants.

— Fashion tart: had the fashionisto at the Marc show who’d had his (presumably) favourite designer’s logo tattooed along his inner arm found a new way to make extra cash by turning his body into a human billboard? Was he being ironic? Or does he just need psychiatric treatment? Watch this walking ad space.

Key pieces

2007-09-20T08:12:00.003-07:00

Key pieces

Every September, grown women experience something akin to that back-to-school feeling. In the same way that kids simply must have a new pencil case for the start of term (and it has to be the right one – otherwise they will never make friends and life won’t be worth living), fashion women get new-season panic.

It’s that awful, ominous feeling. You know that decisions have to be made about who you are going to be this season. Modern flapper? Sexy schoolmarm? Nu-punk aggro girl? Fluffy teddy-bear eccentric? The shops are filling up with alluring new stock; the magazines tempt with glamorous images. To add to the pressure, you know that to get the good stuff, you have to be in on a look early.

There are so many choices, but how do you edit out the fashion white noise – those style duds that you thought would look as good on you as they did on Mary-Kate Olsen but didn’t live up to the hype?

The trick is to think micro, not macro. Focus not on fashion’s grand, sweeping narratives, but on a few key pieces. In these pages are the three, four or five items that will make you feel instantly updated. Think of them as your fashion first team.

Some offer immediate newness. This season’s revived skirt suit, for instance, offers a fresh, nipped-in silhouette and is versatile, too. You can wear it as a suit and nod to the trend, or split the pieces up and wear them with your existing wardrobe. Wide trousers are another eye-catching new contour and should appeal to anyone suffering from skinny-jeans fatigue. And there’s a focus on leather. It was a big catwalk look, and the high street has been quick to pick up on it.

One brilliant leather piece, be it rock-chick trousers, a great bomber or a fitted dress, will give your look instant currency. Other key pieces, such as big chunky knits, sleek, fitted shift dresses and tailored coats, are simply fabulous staples that will work hard and live long in your wardrobe.

Just as a particularly good vintage attracts a wine connoisseur, the spur to
buy these key pieces now is that they have been done particularly well this season.

Fashion week: your top 12 need-to-knows from Monday

2007-09-20T08:12:00.001-07:00

Fashion week: your top 12 need-to-knows from Monday

Head girls

Don't bother getting a fancy haircut for next summer - your most fashionable accessory is going to be a hat. And judging by the shows in London, there is a hat for every head. If you are an outdoorsy type of girl then nab yourself one of the peaked hats from Unconditional; made from the plastic wrapping material which you can pop for hours these are as fun as they are fashionable. Another plastic fantastic is Clare Tough. A young knitwear designer, who set off her tiny dresses with taping around the models' heads. It might sounds ugly, not to mention dangerous, but the final look was a kind of modern swimming cap, think Keira Knightley in Atonement with more colour and shine. Lastly, for the Isabella Blows among us, there were wild creations at Basso and Brooke. Large, flat and multicoloured they are guaranteed head turners. - Alice Olins

Man watch

It's the men that never fail to surprise at fashion week. So far spotted:

What's everyone talking about?

- Yesterday much chat over the Chris Kane show. (We visited Christopher backstage - watch the video.) People were polarised and the response at the venue was definitely subdued. Everyone wanted to like it but many weren't sure about the snakeskin (an ode to Steve Irwin according to Kane himself).

- Anna Wintour being here - apparently she has a bodyguard (oh purlease). Seen at Gareth Pugh and Chris Kane. Still the same old haircut.

- Everyone is loving the model Agyness Deyn, seen at Gareth Pugh and PPQ, and bopping alongside Giles Deacon at the Moet party. Shame about her star turn with Peaches at PPQ - Peaches looked like Deyn's rather less fortunate younger sister.

- The lack of goody bags at the shows... not much decent booty in sight. Best goody bag so far from Camilla Morton's party Monday night. It included her new book - signed, Dior perfume, leather notebook, Falke tights, in a huge Browns bag. Deluxe.

Marigay McKee

2007-09-20T08:11:00.004-07:00

Marigay McKee

Fashion and beauty director at Harrods

Everyone thinks that I buy only for the lady who lunches but the reality is that our customers are very varied. Half of our shoppers are between 30 and 50 and they are yummy mummies, career executives, bankers’ wives, socialites, as well as women who are just starting to find their feet in designer wear.

We don’t specifically buy into trends so much as buy into life-styles. The Harrods customer appreciates that we sell brands that no other stores stock, as well as the exclusive pieces within high-end labels.

Many boutiques will select items from Dolce & Gabbana but we’re the only store that’s bought in the ￡27,000, the ￡40,000 and the ￡50,000 dress. Three years ago, when I became fashion director, the most expensive dress on the shop floor was around ￡4,000. Now it’s between ￡40,000 and ￡50,000. And we sell them. Our international customer is far more discerning and demanding than our UK customer.

The main difference is that the UK consumer values luxury and comfort in the same way that the international customer values luxury and designer brands.

What I’m noticing is a huge return to glamour; women are buying more beauty products, always an indicator to us of a more groomed, polished look.

In terms of where this season is headed (especially from the New York shows) the buzzwords are glamour, fitted shapes, cropped jackets, belted suits and coats, feminine blouses and pencil skirts. Coats are big news. Either military-inspired or a trench style, although cape coats/ jackets in cashmere or tweed are also a new departure. They look great teamed with a pair of skinny trousers. There were plenty of exotic skins for shoes and accessories at the shows and an abundance of detailing: hardware, zips and studding was key.

Heritage style is another big story, especially as tweed hasn’t really featured in the past few years. Some of the more technical detailing on clothes and fabrics was interesting but they sometimes detract from the softness and flow of the fabric. Our customers value drape, cut, flow and fluidity, so I’d opt for a soft, moving garment every time.

Marigay’s top three buys:
1 Balenciaga pinstripe jacket from ￡1,000 (featured in slide show at top of page)
2 Gucci red snaffle ballet pump, ￡225
3 YSL Downtown patent bag, ￡1,050 (featured in slide show at top of page)
All available at Harrods (020-7730 1234)

Buying into the future

2007-09-20T08:11:00.003-07:00

Buying into the future

We’re midway through London Fashion Week yet who really knows what everyone will be wearing next summer? Fashion editors might well report on boleros, square-toe sling-backs and ra-ra skirts but unless an influential store buys into the “look” then the chances are that you won’t have much access to it.

A buyer’s ability to kill a trend (or at least dilute it) is not well documented. Surprisingly enough, between 60 and 70 per cent of a season’s purchasing is done before the month-long circus of fashion shows begins. Going to the collections is a way of confirming ideas and trends as well as ordering key show-pieces that will be picked up by the media. So what do they have in store for us this winter? We asked three buyers what we should be looking out for right now (if they haven’t already sold out) and just where fashion is heading.

Spotted at the shows

2007-09-20T08:11:00.001-07:00

Spotted at the shows

Fringes

What does it take to become a true fashionista? A fringe. And not just any fringe. Some wispy, side sweeping affair is about as avant garde as The Waltons. No, to be a true fashionista - as I have discovered at London Fashion Week - you need an extreme fringe - ie blunt, full, at an angle a la Dawn French, or anything resembling a horse. At the tents I've witnessed ginger versions, at the parties chunky brunette ones, and if Agyness Deyn has one, well, suffice to say it's cool. – Nicola Copping

Addition to the crazy men at fashion week quota

Yesterday on the front row at Paul Smith a human version of a canary: bright yellow three piece suit with spandex leggings. 7/10 for emulating a walking advertisement for Bird's Eye custard. – NC

Multimedia
Pictures: The Golden Age of Couture Gala
Pictures: Vintage images from the Golden Age of Couture
Basso & Brooke, Danielle Scutt and Jasper Conran

Multimedia
Pictures: Paul Smith
Pictures: Christopher Kane
Pictures: PPQ, Julien MacDonald

Related Links
London Fashion Week in pictures and video
Fashion week: your top 12 need-to-knows from Monday
The women who make Fashion happen

Who's sitting on the front row

Celebrities, they love a good fashion show. Not only do the photographers go mental for them, the celebs get the best seats in the house, which means a goody bag and an uninterupted view. Plus, all the non-luminaries on the other side of the catwalk get to gawk at the celebrities and their flaws - perfect pre-show entertainment.

Here's who has been gracing LFW with their star-studded prescence:

Erin O'Connor: international model and non-Size Zero campaigner - seen at Betty Jackson and Unconditional where she took the unprecendented step of sitting in the row five. Some celebrities are so humble.

Elen Rives: WAG of Frank Lampard - seen wearing a rather uncomfortable looking white studded shirt ensemble at Jens Laugensen. The spotlights did wonders for her diamonds.

Melanie Blatt and Nicole Appleton: one half of the All Saints - seen wearing too much make-up for 9.30 in the morning at the Betty Jackson show.

Margo Stilley: her of on-screen sex fame - seen wearing her sunglasses inside the fashion tent at Gareth Pugh. Apparently her bottom was visible through a very sheer black dress, but this is still uncomfirmed.

Anna Wintour: American Vogue Editor and short bob lover - graced our prescence at Christopher Kane, Gareth Pugh and Duro Olowu. Anna, London welcomes you with open arms.

So that is how things stand on day five - expect more at Matthew Williamson this afternoon..... – Alice Olins

Meteorite causes mysterious illness

2007-09-20T08:10:00.006-07:00

Meteorite causes mysterious illness

LIMA Villagers in southern Peru were struck by a mysterious illness after a meteorite crashed to Earth, authorities said. It landed on Saturday near their remote village in the high Andes part of the Desaguadero region, creating a crater,100ft wide (30m) by 20ft (6m) deep, right.

Residents complained of headaches and vomiting caused by a “strange odour”. Seven policemen who went to check on the reports also became ill and had to be taken to hospital. A local official said: “Boiling water started coming out of the crater and particles of rock and cinders were found near by.” (AFP)

Tensions rise over Kashmir expedition

2007-09-20T08:10:00.005-07:00

Tensions rise over Kashmir expedition
DELHI Indian soldiers will lead a trekking party to a glacier in Kashmir, right, despite protests from Pakistan, which also claims the area. Pakistan expressed “deep concern” at reports of an expedition to the 6,100m (20,000ft) Siachen glacier. “The area remains a conflict zone, and the move by India could aggravate the situation,” it said.

The Indian Defence Ministry said: “This is a routine adventure activity that will take place in an area which is ours.” Thousands of troops have confronted each other in the Siachen area since 1984, when Indian forces occupied the glacier. (AP)

Mammoth finds mean big money for the bone hunters of the Arctic Circle

2007-09-20T08:10:00.003-07:00

Mammoth finds mean big money for the bone hunters of the Arctic Circle

CHERSKY Prehistoric bones are not hard to find in the northernmost reaches of Siberia. The permafrost is thawing so rapidly that in some places in the tundra, the bones of lions, mammoths and woolly rhinos poke out through the soil every few metres. The storage room of the Ice Age Museum in Moscow, above, where Alexander Svalov holds a mammoth bone, is packed with examples.

The company that runs the museum holds government licences allowing it to excavate and export prehistoric relics. Private collectors and scientific institutes – from the United States to South Korea – will pay huge sums for the right specimen.

A well-preserved tusk, Mr Svalov says, can sell to private collectors for up to $20,000 (￡10,000), while a reconstructed mammoth skeleton can fetch between $150,000 and $250,000.

Bone prospectors such as Alexander Vatagin have turned this region of Siberia, eight time zones from Moscow, into a palaeontological Klondyke. “Last year someone was paid 800,000 roubles (￡16,000) for a mammoth head with two tusks,” he said. He employs fishermen and reindeer herders from the tiny Yukagir ethnic group, whose keen eyes and local knowledge help them to find the best artefacts. (Reuters)

Lesbian couple sue doctor after twins

2007-09-20T08:10:00.001-07:00

Lesbian couple sue doctor after twins

SYDNEY A lesbian couple are seeking damages from their doctor after one gave birth to twins after fertility treatment, rather than a single baby.

The women, who cannot be named, are suing Robert Armellin for more than A$400,000 (￡167,000) to cover the cost of raising one of the twin girls until the age of 21.

The birth-mother of the girls, who are now aged 3, told the Supreme Court in Canberra that Dr Armellin implanted two embryos, when she had told him minutes before the IVF procedure in November 2003 that she only wanted one.

The woman said that she and her partner briefly considered putting one of the babies up for adoption but dismissed the idea, deciding that it would be unfair to both twins, who are nonidentical.

The couple want A$398,000 to cover the costs of raising one of the girls, including private school fees, about A$15,000 to compensate them for time off work, plus an additional amount for medical expenses. (AFP)

￡10m surprise for Luciano Pavarotti’s wife

2007-09-20T08:09:00.003-07:00

￡10m surprise for Luciano Pavarotti’s wife

ROME Luciano Pavarotti carved €15 million (￡10 million) out of his estate in the form of a trust for his second wife, the Italian press reported.

The revelation was in a final will drafted five weeks before the opera star’s death, and was opened on Monday by the lawyers of Nicoletta Mantovani, who he married in 2003.

A previous will dated June 13 remains valid, distributing the rest of the tenor’s estate among his three daughters from his first marriage, Ms Mantovani and the four-year-old daughter he had with her.

The new will carries a special clause concerning Pavarotti’s three New York apartments and items such as paintings by Henri Matisse. This part of the estate cannot be touched by the three elder daughters. Their lawyer, Fabrizio Corsini, said: “If it appears that there has been a serious prejudice, we will think about the means to secure the rights of the three daughters, but without controversy and not right away.”

Fed rate cut sends world markets soaring

2007-09-20T08:09:00.001-07:00

Fed rate cut sends world markets soaring

World markets continued to surge today as relieved traders welcomed last night's move by the US Federal Reserve to cut interest rates by 0.5 per cent, which sent Wall Street up more than 300 points.

In London, the FTSE 100 roared past 6,400 and was up 160 points at one stage, but later fell back to be up 125 points.

London's bounce came as markets across the world rose in response to the Fed's move designed to inject confidence into US markets and calms fears of a US economic slump.

Asian shares rose sharply. In Japan, the Nikkei 225 stock index jumped 579.74, or 3.7 per cent, to close at 16,381.54 and the Hang Seng set a fresh record at 25,515, up more than 3 per cent.

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In New Zealand, the NZX-50 index closed up 1.3 per cent, standing 54 points higher at 4,177.64. Stock markets in South Korea, India, Australia, Singapore, Taiwan and the Philippines also posted gains.

However on the foreign exchange markets, the dollar fell against almost all major currencies and hit a record low against the euro.

Chris Huddleston at Close Brothers said the euro rose as high $1.3979 after the long-awaited decision before settling back to $1.3972 in late New York trading.

The dollar also fell against the pound, which rose to $2.0130 New York and hit $2.0046 in London, up from $1.9939 on Monday.

But gold rose, hitting a 27-year high of $735 per troy ounce. The decline of the dollar against the euro has boosted demand for the precious metal as an alternative investment.

Oil also climbed to a fresh record of more than $82 a barrel, amid predictions it could top $85. London Brent crude rose 72 cents to trade at $78.31 a barrel.

Yesterday's move on Wall Street pushed the Dow Jones industrial average up by its sharpest one-day gain for almost five years and its steepest percentage rise since spring 2003. The Dow closed up 335.97, or 2.5 per cent, at 13,739.47. The broad-based S&P index of US blue chips rose 2.8 per cent.

Benchmark ten-year Treasury bond prices fell, however, as markets suffered renewed nervousness over inflation.

Although the Fed had been expected to cut its target for the Federal Funds rate, the key US policy rate, there was widespread uncertainty as to whether the cut would be a quarter- point or a half-point. In the end, Ben Bernanke, the Fed Chairman, and his colleagues seemed to have opted to swallow concern that an aggressive move might be seen as a bailout of financial institutions that had engaged in irresponsible lending in the past few years.

Instead, they signalled that they are alert to the danger that the financial stresses of the past two months could cause a serious economic slowdown and they cut the Fed Funds rate from 5.25 per cent to 4.75 per cent.

The Fed said: “The tightening of credit conditions has the potential to intensify the housing correction and to restrain economic growth more generally. Today’s action is intended to help forestall some of the adverse effects on the broader economy that might otherwise arise from the disruptions in financial markets and to promote moderate growth over time.”

The Fed also cut its discount rate, for lending to banks on an emergency basis, by a half-point to 5.25 per cent.

Problems in the US sub-prime mortgage market grew over the summer, culminating in a full-blown crisis last month. Uncertainty about the size of sub-prime losses has caused investor panic and some financial institutions have suffered extreme difficulty gaining access to financing.

In the past week the Bank of England has been forced to provide financial support to Northern Rock, and for the past month the European Central Bank has been providing special injections of liquidity to financial institutions. The Fed also increased its own supply of funding to banks last month.

Although US markets seem to have steadied recently, risks of financial strain remain high, analysts say. There have been signs of broader US economic weakness. Last month, US employment suffered its first fall for four years, fuelling fear of recession.

President Pervez Musharraf offers civilian rule – with strings

2007-09-20T08:08:00.005-07:00

President Pervez Musharraf offers civilian rule – with strings

President Musharraf of Pakistan announced yesterday that he would step down as army chief by November 15, ending eight years of military rule in a country on the front line of the War on Terror.

But adversaries immediately rejected the proposal as an undemocratic ploy to prolong his rule over the Muslim nation of 165 million despite escalating opposition from Islamists and moderates alike.

General Musharraf, who seized power in a bloodless coup in 1999, wants to be elected as President in a poll due by October 15, before calling parliamentary elections due by mid-January.

His popularity has slumped, however, since he tried to dismiss the Chief Justice in March, and he now faces legal challenges to his rule at the same time as a revolt by militants on the border with Afghanistan.

He made the announcement through Sharifuddin Pirzada, his chief lawyer, during a Supreme Court hearing into petitions against his plans to stand for reelection as president while still in his uniform.

“If elected for a second term as President, General Pervez Musharraf shall relinquish charge of office of Chief of Army Staff soon after election and before taking oath of office as President,” Mr Pirzada told the court.

Rumours had circulated for months, but this was the first official statement of the former commando’s intent to relinquish his uniform, which he said this year had become “part of my skin”.

Government officials said that the statement paved the way for an orderly return to civilian, democratic rule.

Tariq Azeem, Deputy Information Minister, told The Times: “It was clear to most people that he would be doffing his uniform some time this year, but because of the debate that’s been going on in the courts and the media, the matter had to be clarified.”

General Musharraf wants to be elected by the current national and provincial legislatures, where his supporters have a majority, and to be sworn in by November 15, when his current term ends.

But opponents say that he should step down from his military post first and can seek reelection by a new parliament only after the general election. Some say that he has to wait two years before running again.

“General Musharraf does not fulfil the constitutional requirement to contest the election,” said Saeed uz Zaman Siddiqui, a former chief justice.

Will computers reach top speed by 2020?

2007-09-20T08:08:00.003-07:00

Will computers reach top speed by 2020?

For decades it has been the benchmark by which advancements in computing are measured.

Now Moore's Law - the maxim which states that computers double in speed roughly every two years - has come under threat, from none other than the man who coined it.

Gordon Moore, the retired co-founder of Intel, wrote an influential paper in 1965 called 'Cramming more components onto integrated circuits', in which he theorised that the number of transistors on a computer chip would double at a constant rate.

Silicon Valley has kept up with his widely accepted maxim for more than 40 years, to the point where a new generation of chips, which Intel will begin to produce next year, will have transistors so tiny that four million of them could fit on the head of a pin.

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In an interview yesterday, however, Mr Moore said by about 2020, his law would come up against a rather intractable stumbling block: the laws of physics.

"Another decade, a decade and a half, I think we'll hit something fairly fundamental," Mr Moore said at Intel's twice-annual technology conference. Then Moore's Law will be no more.

Mr Moore was speaking as Intel gave its first demonstration of a new family of processors, to be introduced in November, which contain circuitry 45 nanometres - billionths of a metre - wide.

The 'Penryn' processors, 15 of which will be introduced this year, with another 20 to follow in the first quarter of 2008, will be so advanced that a single chip will contain as many as 820 million transistors.

Computer experts said today that a failure to live up to Moore's Law would not limit the ultimate speed at which computers could run. Instead, the technology used to manufacture chips would shift.

The current method of Silicon-based manufacturing is known as "bulk CMOS", which is essentially a 'top-down' approach, where the maker starts with a piece of Silicon and 'etches out' the parts that aren't needed.

"The technology which will replace this is a bottom-up approach, where chips will be assembled using individual atoms or molecules, a type of nanotechnology," Jim Tully, chief of research for semi-conductors at Gartner, the analyst, said.

"It's not standardised yet - people are still experimenting - but you might refer to this new breed of chips as 'molecular devices'."

Anthony Finkelstein, head of computer science at University College London, said, however, that a more pressing problem in the meantime was to write programs which took full advantage of existing technologies. "It's all very well having multicore chips in desktop machines, but if the software does not take advantage of them, you gain no benefit."

"We are hitting the software barrier before we hit the physical barrier," he said.

Mr Moore, who is 78, pioneered the design of the integrated circuit, and went on to co-found Intel in 1968, where he served as chief executive between 1975 and 1987.

Asked what area he would research if he were a graduate today, he told the conference: "I'd probably look at something more in the biology mould. The interface between computers and biology is a very interesting area

British exit from Basra has led to drop in violence, says General David Patraeus

2007-09-20T08:08:00.001-07:00

British exit from Basra has led to drop in violence, says General David Patraeus

America’s top military commander in Iraq acknowledged yesterday that Britain’s recent withdrawal of 500 troops from the centre of Basra and the handover of security responsibility for the city to the Iraqis had already paid dividends.

General David Petraeus, in London to meet Gordon Brown and senior Cabinet ministers, denied that there had been a spat between the United States and Britain over the withdrawal of the British troops from Basra. “I don’t know where that came from,” he said, speaking at a press conference in Whitehall before heading for 10 Downing Street.

General Jack Keane, an architect of the American surge policy of deploying 30,000 additional US troops to Baghdad, indicated recently that there was concern that a British withdrawal would lead to an increase in violence in Basra, and said there were fears that the Americans might have to backfill in the south with their own troops.

However, General Petraeus, giving the Government his own assessment of the way that things are going in the south, said that he had personally blessed the decision to pull out the remaining 500 troops from the Basra Palace base, and was pleased that it had been carried out “in an orderly way”.

He also said that the level of violence in the city in recent weeks had dropped significantly.

However, he gave warning that the Iranians, who already have a powerful influence in the south among the Shia militia who have been attacking the British Forces, remained a cause of grave concern in the southern provin-ces, particularly in Basra.

Asked by The Times whether the interference of the Iranians in the south was the key reason for maintaining a substantial British force there, General Petraeus said he would not put it at the top of his list, but that it was one of several factors that would dictate when conditions were right for any reduction of forces. “But I wouldn’t rank it \ in any particular order,” he said. He refused to be drawn on any timetable for future British troop withdrawals.

But both he and Ryan Crocker, the US Ambassador to Baghdad, who spoke alongside the general at the press conference at the Royal United Services Institute, referred to the potential “devastating consequences” of a premature withdrawal of troops “for our two nations and the world”.

Mr Crocker said that the consequences for the Iraqi people would be severe.

Before their meeting with the Prime Minister, General Petraeus and Mr Crocker met Des Browne, the Defence Secretary, and Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup, the Chief of the Defence Staff. Today he is expected to see David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary.

Despite his upbeat assessment of the progress that had been made in the south, General Petraeus said that there remained serious challenges. But he was optimistic that the British would be able to hand over security control of the whole of Basra province to the Iraqis “by the fall or by winter”. The three other provinces in the south have already been transferred to Iraqi responsibility.

The four-star general who gave evidence to US Congress last week on the achievements of the US troop-surge strategy, praised the British military contribution and, in particular, noted the efforts of the special forces and two British generals, Lieutenant-General Graeme Lamb and Lieutenant-General Bill Rollo, both of whom had acted as his deputy in Baghdad.

He repeated his evidence to Congress in which he recalled that General Lamb, former Director Special Forces, had reminded him that in counter-insurgency campaigns, “you reconcile with your enemies, not with your friends”, and talked of his experiences in Northern Ireland. “He talked about how he sat across the table from . . . former IRA members who had been swinging [explosive] pipes at his lads, as he put it, just a few years earlier. That was quite instructive for us,” General Petraeus said.

Stocks soar as US Fed orders aggressive half-point cut in rates

2007-09-20T08:07:00.004-07:00

Stocks soar as US Fed orders aggressive half-point cut in rates

The US Federal Reserve leapt to the rescue of the fragile American economy yesterday and cut its key interest rate by a half-point, sparking euphoria in US and global markets.

It was the first cut in US official rates in more than four years and came amid continuing market turmoil driven by fears for the health of the global financial system.

Stocks soared in response to the central bank decision. On Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average staged its sharpest one-day points gain for almost five years and its steepest percentage rise since spring 2003. The Dow closed up 335.97, or 2.5 per cent, at 13,739.47. The broad-based S&P index of US blue chips rose 2.8 per cent.

Benchmark ten-year Treasury bond prices fell, however, as markets suffered renewed nervousness over inflation, while the dollar sagged, pushing the euro to a record high of $1.3968, and the pound back above $2.

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Although the Fed had been expected to cut its target for the Federal Funds rate, the key US policy rate, there was widespread uncertainty as to whether the cut would be a quarter- point or a half-point. In the end, Ben Bernanke, the Fed Chairman, and his colleagues seemed to have opted to swallow concern that an aggressive move might be seen as a bailout of financial institutions that had engaged in irresponsible lending in the past few years. Instead, they signalled that they are alert to the dangers that the financial stresses of the past two months could cause a serious economic slowdown and they cut the Fed Funds rate from 5.25 per cent to 4.75 per cent.

The Fed said: “The tightening of credit conditions has the potential to intensify the housing correction and to restrain economic growth more generally. Today’s action is intended to help forestall some of the adverse effects on the broader economy that might otherwise arise from the disruptions in financial markets and to promote moderate growth over time.”

The Fed also cut its discount rate, for lending to banks on an emergency basis, by a half-point to 5.25 per cent.

Problems in the US sub-prime mortgage market grew over the summer, culminating in a full-blown crisis last month. Uncertainty about the size of sub-prime losses has caused investor panic and some financial institutions have suffered extreme difficulty gaining access to financing.

In the past week the Bank of England has been forced to provide financial support to Northern Rock, and for the past month the European Central Bank has been providing special injections of liquidity to financial institutions. The Fed also increased its own supply of funding to banks last month.

Although US markets seem to have steadied recently, risks of financial strains remains high, analysts say. There have been signs of broader US economic weakness. Last month, US employment suffered its first fall for four years, fuelling fear of recession.

Phil Spector murder trial jury unable to reach a verdict

2007-09-20T08:07:00.003-07:00

Phil Spector murder trial jury unable to reach a verdict

Jurors in the murder trial of Phil Spector last night told the judge that they had reached an impasse in their deliberations, raising the prospect of a mistrial being called as soon as today.

A mistrial would essentially leave the wildly eccentric music producer a free man.

At a hearing at Los Angeles Superior Court, Judge Larry Paul Fidler questioned the jurors, who told him that they were split 7 to 5 — a sign of irreconcileable differences. They did not reveal which way the balance tipped: guilty or not guilty.

When asked if they could reach a decision if they were allowed to convict Mr Spector of involuntary manslaughter, instead of the original charge of second-degree murder, only three jurors said yes. Analysts said that this did not bode well for the prosecution.

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Mr Spector, 67, is accused of picking up Lana Clarkson, a struggling actress who was working as a cocktail waitress at the House of Blues, on a February night in 2003, taking her home to his Los Angeles “castle”, and shooting her in the face.

The creator of the “Wall of Sound” technique of the Sixties, and a one-time producer for The Beatles, had been known for decades in the music industry for his drunken gunplay.

Nevertheless, there were no eyewitnesses to the shooting — aside from perhaps Mr Spector, who did not testify — and over the six months of the trial prosecutors struggled to prove, using blood spatter analysis, dental fragments and gunshot residue, that Ms Clarkson could not have shot herself or that the gun could not have gone off by accident.

Ms Clarkson’s alleged depression, debt, chronic pain and her personal diary — in which she threatened to kill herself only weeks before the shooting — also worked against the prosecution. She was also found to have forged letters of recommendation from TV executives, possibly in an effort to borrow more money from a wealthy friend.

At just after 3pm yesterday, the jurors were sent home to “recharge” overnight. Mr Spector, meanwhile, had spent the afternoon in a pinstripe suit and red tie, hanging around the court with an entourage of 16 people, including his lawyers, jury consultants, private investigators, interns, relatives and bodyguards.

Ms Clarkson’s mother, Donna Clarkson, was also present, along with one of the alleged victim’s best friends, Nili Hudson.

A mistrial would force the prosecution to decide if it wanted to spend several million more dollars of taxpayers’ money to try a second time to convict Mr Spector. With public opinion against Mr Spector, a mistrial would probably be considered yet another celebrity debacle, the first being the acquittal of O. J. Simpson 12 years ago on double-murder charges.

Many Americans believe that defendants with multimillion dollar defence teams can convince jurors that “beyond reasonable doubt” means beyond all scientific doubt.

Mr Spector has previously claimed that Ms Clarkson, who was 41 when she died, “kissed the gun”. The prosecutors countered by calling as witnesses several of Mr Spector’s former girlfriends, who all said that they had previously been threatened at gunpoint by him.

The jurors will meet again today

Nepal on the brink as Maoists quit coalition

2007-09-20T08:07:00.001-07:00

Nepal on the brink as Maoists quit coalition

Nepal’s peace process has been thrown into turmoil yesterday after the former rebel Maoists withdrew from the interim Government.

The apparent disintegration of the eight-party ruling coalition came after Maoist ministers failed to agree with the Prime Minister, Girija Prasad Koirala, on a timetable for declaring Nepal a republic.

The Maoists, who abandoned their decade-long insurgency last year to join the peace process, had insisted that the monarchy should be abolished before elections on November 22. They believed King Gyanendra, who has already been stripped of direct power and his status as head of state, would sabotage the poll with the help of his supporters.

Other coalition partners disagreed with the Maoists, saying that a democratically elected special assembly should decide the fate of the monarchy and rewrite the constitution.

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In addition to the immediate declaration of a republic, the former rebels had requested a commission to investigate the disappearances of their supporters during the civil war, and to assess the salaried integration of their fighters into the national army.

Last-ditch talks in Kathmandu between the Prime Minister and coalition leaders, to avert a political crisis, broke down with four Maoist ministers handing in their resignations after failing to push through their demands.

“The Prime Minister was not ready to negotiate so his party is responsible,” said Krishna Bahadur Mahara, one of the Maoists who left the interim Cabinet.

The move is the biggest setback to peace efforts in the Himalayan country, one of the world’s poorest, since the Maoist insurgents declared a ceasefire. Analysts said that it raised doubts about the ability of the interim Government to hold representative elections.

Several thousand Maoist supporters took to the streets of the Nepalese capital, banging drums, waving red flags and chanting, “Declare Nepal a republic”, as they marched to a rally addressed by Prachanda, the Maoist leader.

The former rebels insisted that they would stick to peaceful protests but warned of potential violence if their demonstrations were put down forcibly. “If there are attempts to crush our peaceful movement, we will also get violent,” Baburam Bhattarai, the deputy leader, said.

The Maoists gained a foothold in mainstream politics last year after months of protests and strikes against the King’s autocratic rule forced him to give up direct rule. They joined the interim parliament in January, gaining 83 seats of the 330 seats, and in April secured cabinet posts.

Under the historic peace treaty signed in November, the Maoists agreed to lock up their weapons in camps monitored by the United Nations. But tensions have persisted as the King refused to abdicate while continuing to flaunt his superiority — albeit substantially reduced — by hosting a lavish 60th birthday party at the palace.

The Maoists threatened nationwide protests to force through their demand that the monarchy be abolished without a democratic vote. The stance prompted the US Ambassador to Nepal, James Moriarty, to describe their campaign as a quest for “absolute power” and to reiterate that they would remain on Washington’s list of terrorist organisations. More than 13,000 people were killed during their ten-year fight for a communist republic

Pied Pipers gather to drive out Spain’s plague of voles

2007-09-20T08:06:00.004-07:00

Pied Pipers gather to drive out Spain’s plague of voles

A village in northern Spain has staged a remake of the Pied Piper of Hamelin to drive out a plague of voles that has been destroying crops across the countryside.

In a modern-day version of the 13th-century legend popularised by the Brothers Grimm, 20 people in Villotilla, Palencia, played a collection of flutes and recorders in an attempt to lure the rodents into a nearby river and their deaths.

The effort – officially called the First Flautists of Hamelin Competition – involved some of the amateur musicians dressing as makeshift Pied Pipers, while others donned masks to transform themselves into voles for a day.

Rural northern Spain has been stricken this year by millions of voles that have devastated crops and threaten to invade vineyards, public parks and even towns.

The common vole (Microtus arvalis) is native to northern Spain. Most of the population dies in the region’s bitter winters, but they survived this year, which was unusually ice-free, then flourished in the rainy spring that followed.

The pipers of Villotilla faced a jury who pronounced on their musical abilities, but the acid test was if they could prove they had charmed any voles into the water and their deaths. There was no evidence that any voles had thrown themselves into the river during the contest.

Many villagers, such as Bonifacio Machin, had no musical pretensions. “I don’t know how to play the flute, but I thought I should do something to help these people end this plague of voles,” he said. Others, such as 86-year-old Teodoro León and his sister Lucila, who were dressed in gold, curly wigs and played a drum made out of an old washing machine tub, appeared to be along for the fun.

Players from the nearby village of Villamuriel won the judges’ approval with their appropriately named number I Was Mr Cat. But the winners were two groups from the villages of Venta de Ba?os and Ba?os de Cerrato, who won a trip to Valladolid to explain to farmers how they had done their bit to fight the voles.

In a more serious effort to deal with the problem, farmers have demanded massive doses of poison to exterminate the voles. Some protests have turned violent. In July hundreds of angry farmers carrying live voles broke into the offices of the local authorities in Valladolid and threatened to release the animals inside. Police charged and scattered the demonstrators.

Monks brave teargas and gunfire to challenge generals' grip on Burma

2007-09-20T08:06:00.003-07:00

Monks brave teargas and gunfire to challenge generals' grip on Burma

Buddhist monks marched in protest in Burma yesterday in the biggest show of defiance for a decade against the country’s repressive and tenacious dictatorship.

The marches, in Rangoon, the capital, and at least four other places brought to a head a month of protest against the junta. Despite the presence of large numbers of police and civilian militiamen supporting the Government, most marches were peaceful, if tense.

However, the increasing presence on the streets of monks, after the suppression and arrest of civilian demonstrators last month, will add greatly to the discomfort of one of the world’s longest-surviving military governments.

According to witness accounts, conveyed by news agencies and opposition groups in exile, as many as 400 monks marched in Rangoon. Hundreds of people joined in, and they were followed by plainclothes police on motorbikes and watched by 200 riot police in lorries.

After being prevented from entering the golden Shwedagon Pagoda, the holiest site of Burmese Buddhism, the demonstration made its way through the town centre.

Police fired teargas and warning shots to disperse 1,000 monks in the port city of Sittwe, 350 miles (560km) west of Rangoon, and at least three were arrested, according to the American-funded Radio Free Asia.

In Pegu, 50 miles to the north, as many as 1,000 monks were reported to have marched to the local pagoda. There were smaller gatherings in Kyaukpadaung and Aunglan, north of the capital.

On Monday about 500 monks were reported to have marched in Kyaukpadaung and Chauk, northwest of Rangoon, but there were no arrests, in contrast to last month, when dozens of people were seized when they went on a demonstration.

The restraint shown by the regime attests to the moral authority of the saffron-robed monks, who command a respect unmatched by any secular institution in the Buddhist country.

There was outrage on September 5 when hundreds of monks in the town of Pakokku were set upon by soldiers and pro-government militiamen as they marched and chanted peacefully. Shots were fired above their heads and large numbers of demonstrators were beaten. When a delegation of government officials went to the pagoda to apologise, they were taken hostage briefly by the Buddhists.

Monks across the country reacted with fury and senior abbots demanded an apology for the incident, setting this week as the deadline. If no apology was offered, they threatened to carry out further demonstrations and to refuse to accept alms from members of the military — a humiliating sanction in a country in which the giving of charity to monks is an essential duty of respectable citizens.

Rather than political slogans, the monks chant prayers and Buddhist charms to ward off harm. The implication that the junta is an evil force, an offence against the natural order of things, is especially potent in Burma, where religious faith and superstition are widespread.

Yesterday was the nineteenth anniversary of the internal military coup that brought the junta to power. It took over from an existing military government after the bloody suppression of nationwide democracy demonstrations in 1988, when an estimated 3,000 protesters died, many of them students.

In response the Government held democratic elections in 1990, which were won overwhelmingly by the National League for Democracy, led by Aung San Suu Kyi, who later won the Nobel Peace Prize. But the junta never acknowledged the election results and has held on to power since, despite denunciations and appeals by Western governments and human rights organisations.

The latest demonstrations were triggered last month when the Government raised the price of fuel oil by as much as 500 per cent. They were led by veterans of the 1988 struggle, scores of whom were arrested; many more have gone into hiding. The fear of another massacre may explain why the latest protests have not come close to the scale of those in 1988.

The authorities have also cut off mobile telephone and land lines to hamper communication between activist organisations.

“People today are more aware of politics, and the current political situation, thanks to the media abroad,” Tun Myint Aung, a leader of the ’88 Generation Students’ Group, told the Irrawaddy news website. “The general discontent in the public is high. In ’88 we wore masks while protesting so we could not be identified. The protesters today wore nothing though they knew they would be arrested later.”

Making a stand

— 600 monks were arrested and several were killed during demonstrations in 1974

— In 1980 the junta called for the “cleansing” of Buddhism. It set up the State Sangha council, mostly comprising junta-appointed monks, and banned many forms of Buddhist expression

— In 1989 the monk U Kawiya was sentenced to death for his role in the uprising the previous year in which thousands were killed

— Buddhist clergy were asked to stay off the streets this summer, and surveillance around monastries has increased

Monks brave teargas and gunfire to challenge generals' grip on Burma

2007-09-20T08:06:00.001-07:00

Mother of abandoned Pumpkin, 3, found dead in boot of husband's car

2007-09-20T08:05:00.002-07:00

Mother of abandoned Pumpkin, 3, found dead in boot of husband's car

A body, believed to be that of the young mother of a little girl abandoned by her father at a Melbourne railway station, has been found in the boot of her fugitive husband’s car.

New Zealand police found the body of Anan Lui, 27, overnight in her estranged husband’s work car, which was parked at the family’s home in Auckland, New Zealand.

Police said the body was that of a young Asian woman and was most likely to be Anan Lui, known as Annie, wife of the fugitive Auckland newspaper publisher, Michael Xue.

Mr Xue fled from Auckland to Melbourne a week ago with the couple’s three-year old daughter, Qian Xun Xue, and abandoned the child at Melbourne’s busy Southern Cross station on Saturday. He walked away, took a taxi to the airport and flew to Los Angeles, where he has disappeared.

After her father abandoned her, the little girl did not speak for two days – until she cried for her mother.

Dubbed Pumpkin by the police who took her in on Saturday, the toddler has moved hearts across Australia and New Zealand as images have emerged of her father walking hand in hand with her to the station and then dumping her at the bottom of an escalator.

The child’s mother was last seen about ten days ago. The car in which her body was found had been parked outside the couple’s Auckland home for two days before it was moved by police late last night.

Police said that they had informed Ms Liu's mother in China of the discovery, but added that no formal identification of the body had taken place.

"There's a lot of work to do to ensure we preserve as much forensic evidence pertaining to the woman's death as possible," Senior Sergeant Simon Scott said. "To that end, we won't be rushed into doing anything and will take the utmost care with a key item in what is now most definitely a homicide investigation.

"We would very much like to speak with Mr Xue, the registered owner of the vehicle, who we understand is in the United States.”

Michael Xue, 54, is now the subject of an international search. Security images and airline records show that Mr Xue boarded a flight to Los Angeles about two hours after he abandoned his daughter at the railway station. He is now being sought by police in the United States.

Mr Xue — the owner of a Chinese-language newspaper — is well known within Auckland’s Chinese community. A martial arts expert, he was the subject of a short film made this year which documented his search for his missing older daughter from an earlier marriage.

In the film, Mr Xue tearfully appealed for his older daughter to return, saying: “Give me a chance to remedy those things that Papa did wrong. Daughter please come back.”

The film showed Mr Xue, wearing a back silk martial arts costume, theatrically dabbing his eyes with a white handkerchief as he tells of his grief over the loss of his first daughter, who disappeared five years ago and has not been found.

Tony Wright, the film-maker, said that Mr Xue’s performance in his documentary appeared hollow. “He was talking and he just started crying . . . it all seemed false. It didn’t seem to be believable,” he told TV3 in New Zealand.

New Zealand police said that Mr Xue, who emigrated to Auckland from China 12 years ago, had a history of domestic violence with Ms Liu, 27, his second wife.

The couple separated about a year ago and Qian Xun Xue had been living with her mother. But yesterday police discovered Ms Liu’s car at Auckland airport and believe that it was driven there by her estranged husband late last week as he headed to Melbourne with their child.

Police cordoned off and searched the family’s suburban Auckland home and garden but did not find the child’s mother. They believe that she has not left New Zealand.

Acquaintances say that Mr Xue was last seen with his daughter in an Auckland restaurant on Thursday, and police believe he flew to Melbourne with his daughter later that day.

CCTV footage taken at Southern Cross station on Saturday morning shows him walking on to a platform with the child before abandoning her and walking away, pulling his suitcase. He does not look back. The little girl wandered along the platform for about 20 minutes before security guards found her.

Qian Xun Xue has been placed in the care of a Melbourne family while efforts to find her parents continue.

Associates in Auckland said that Mr Xue — also known as Xue Naiyin — had been experiencing financial problems and had been distressed over the breakdown of his marriage. He is reported to have withdrawn a substantial amount of money from his account before leaving New Zealand

US bans diplomats travelling outside Green Zone after private security row

2007-09-20T08:05:00.001-07:00

US bans diplomats travelling outside Green Zone after private security row

The US has barred all land travel by its diplomats and other civilian officials outside Baghdad's Green Zone after the Iraqi Government revoked the licence of a private security firm that protects State Department staff.

Despite signs that the Iraqi ministers were softening their stance on the contractor, Blackwater, after its staff allegedly killed a number of Iraqi civilians, US diplomatic operations in the country have been thrown into disarray.

The Iraqi government today backed away from its threat to expel Blackwater, instead announcing it had set up a committee to review the status of all security contractors and the regulations binding their activities.

Reports that Blackwater guards had opened fire on civilians near a US State Department motorcade in Baghdad over the weekend drew a furious reaction from the Iraqi Government and political groups, despite difficulties determining the exact nature of the incident.

But the Iraqi Government now appears keen to defuse the crisis. “Iraqi and US officials have set up a joint committee to decide how this issue can be resolved,” Ali al-Dabbagh, an government spokesman, said. “The committee will begin its work today."

The Government was not intending to revoke Blackwater’s license indefinitely but needed them to respect the laws of Iraq, he said.

Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, pledged Washington’s full co-operation, saying on Tuesday night that it was “as interested as the Iraqi government in having a full investigation into what happened … and to working with the Iraqi government to try and make certain that this sort of thing doesn’t happen.”

Despite the present uncertainty, other security contractors working in Iraq have welcomed the move to regulate the presence of private firms, regarded by many Iraqis as mercenaries.

“Blackwater has a reputation. If you want over-over-the-top, gun-toting security with high profile and all the bells and whistles, Blackwater are the people you are going to go with,” said James Sammons, a former Australian Special Air Service commander who now works for British-based AKE Group, which also provides security in Iraq.

He said any civilian killings by security firms cast all other contractors in an unfavourable light.

Under a 2004 regulation issued by the then occupying US authority, security contractors enjoy full immunity from prosecution under Iraqi law. Neither are they subject to military law like US forces in the country.

Hassan al-Rubaie, a member of the Iraqi parliament’s Security and Defense Committee, said an investigative committee had been formed to examine whether that immunity enjoyed by security contractors should be lifted.

O.J. Simpson charged with kidnap and robbery

2007-09-20T08:04:00.000-07:00

O.J. Simpson charged with kidnap and robbery
O.J. Simpson was charged with kidnapping, conspiracy and armed robbery last night for allegedly stealing sports memorabilia from collectors in a casino hotel room.
Mr Simpson, acquitted in a sensational double-murder trial in 1995, is being held without bail.
Three co-defendants were charged with 11 criminal counts including coercion and assault with a deadly weapon. Mr Simpson was due in court on Wednesday morning for a hearing in the case.
The charges came a day after an audio recording was released apparently showing the former sports star orchestrating the armed robbery.
On the tape, Mr Simpson can be heard angrily confronting two dealers of sports memorabilia, who claim that he robbed them at gunpoint with a gang of associates.
The robbery allegedly took place on Thursday, the night before the release of his book, If I Did It, a “hypothetical confession” to the killing of his wife and her friend.
The tape was recorded by Thomas Riccio, co-owner of the auction house Universal Rarities, and released by the celebrity gossip website TMZ.com.
The website said that Mr Riccio had reportedly agreed to join Mr Simpson on a private "sting" operation to see if Alfred Beardsley, one of the memorabilia dealers, was trying to sell goods that belonged to Mr Simpson.
According to the alleged agreement, they would threaten Mr Beardsley with the police only if he did not give any stolen items back.
But on the tape, Mr Simpson can be heard bellowing: "Don’t let nobody out this room, motherf*****s. Think you can steal my s*** and sell it?"
In an interview with Good Morning America on ABC Bruce Fromong, another dealer, who was also in the room, said: "The door burst open and they came in almost commando style, OJ Simpson and some of his people, I guess you would call it, with guns drawn. O.J. at that time was saying, 'I want my stuff. I want my stuff.' The thing in my mind as soon as I saw him, I’m thinking, 'O.J., how can you be this dumb? You’re in enough trouble.'"
Mr Simpson was taken into custody in handcuffs on Sunday. His arraignment has been set for tomorrow.
Yale Galanter, a lawyer for Mr Simpson, said: "Mr Simpson is not guilty of these charges. We believe it is an extremely defensible case based on conflicting witness statements, flip-flopping by witnesses and witnesses making deals with the Government to flip."